Here is what I showed a glimpse of the other day - my flower topiary!




 I have been wanting to do one for quite awhile and finally, a couple weeks ago, I started.  I started by merely punching out flower after flower. First, using a Scallop Circle Punch, I began with the largest flower in the pale Pretty in Pink shade - and then a small bowl of Chocolate Chip brown flowers with our Stampin' Up! Trio Flower Punch  - while watching tv.

On the commercials, I glittered all around the edge of each pink flower with glitter glue and set them in rows on a plastic tray to dry. Then I tossed everything in to a basket and set it aside for another day.

Then about a week later, I decided it was 'pin-up' time!  So I rummaged around my stashes and found a half circle florist foam piece - and then a search for a vessel to set it into to. My small ceramic urn was just the thing! But a small bowl would have worked too - I'm sure we all have something! I grabbed my basket of punched flowers - and headed to the table.

I used tiny pins - don't even know where they originally came from, I just have a jar of them. But they are slender like sewing pins - so I guess you could use those too.

I insert the pin into the little brown flowers - to help anchor the pin better before inserting it into the large pink flower.  [* You could start with a bead  if you wanted to].

Next, you insert the entire flower assemble into the foam placing the flowers right up beside each other as close as possible!!! You may have to press down on the "collection" of flowers as you cover the foam in order to add another flower.

I did a few of these into the foam - when I dawned on me that the paper was too stiff.  The flowers at this point were "bucking up" too much and it was becoming a struggle.

My solution - I took the pink flowers off and squished each one - in-between my hands, pressing it into a ball and turning it around, pressing it some more - or alternately, folding it into soft 'pleats' and pressing that tight, unfolding and re-folding till the entire flower became - supple.  There will be little crinkles in the flower, but now that adds a certain charm!

This took me a few flowers to discover which method I liked the best - then I was able to finish the rest of them fairly fast.

Now, when I went to pin them into the foam in clusters - it worked, they squished up beside one another easily!!! :)



After finishing all the flowers - I had a few bald spots near the base.  I decided to try a different flower shape, and used a deeper pink shade - Melon Mambo cardstock. This worked really well.

I punched out some leaf stems - and stuck them along the ridge of the urn with glue dots.
Then set the topiary into the urn.

Only after did I decide to add the little embellishments to the top of the topiary - just to signify Mother's Day! That little bird is from our latest Stampin' Up! punches - one punch gives you the bird, the wing and the leaf stem shown beside the bird [ XL 2-Step Bird] .  My 'handle' so to speak, is another one of our new border punches, Scallop Trim Border  which I earned free during Sale-A-Bration. It will appear in the new Idea Catalogue coming in June.

Alternate Ideas
A person could do this even on a grander scale by doing a "double topiary ball" style using a smaller ball above the larger one.  A thin bamboo stick would be useful to attach the two together.

Or turn the whole thing into a hanging ball - by covering an entire foam ball and attaching a ribbon to hang it with  - they could hang on chairs for weddings!  Or just outside on the porch - spray the entire piece with a clear protective coat to make it waterproof!

You could cover a different foam shape with these - a wreath, or even a swan - wouldn't that be something!  Oooh, think I know what I want to try next!

Cheers!
Beverly

Labels: 3D, ACCENT-Flower, Home + Garden Motifs