Friday, February 17, 2012

Creating a Mini Topiary Accent

This past Winter, over the holiday season, I decided to make a topiary from grapevine for the entry. I actually made two and they are currently packed away, awaiting this year's holiday season. Yes, I liked them so much I know I'll be using them again.

I kicked around the idea of bringing at least one indoors to use year-round but they are a bit large so I decided against it. During a "thrift-hunt" I found some old, terra-cotta urns that used to house a candle. I've also been seeing a lot of faux-moss covered items such as stones, wreathes, spheres, etc trending in the decorating world and am liking that look quite a bit. It is especially appropriate for the welcoming of Spring with its bright green hues. Yes, I guess I'm thinking Spring a bit early but this wacky weather here in PA says "SPRING" today so we'll just go with it.

So with a small urn-type pedestal and a Styrofoam ball, I decided to make my own indoor topiary accent.

BEFORE

The urns were a bit blah and dirty so I cleaned them up and gave them a white-wash treatment over the charcoal base color.

AFTER

The Styrofoam ball was from Dollar Tree and is 4" diameter I believe. The Spanish moss was also purchased there and is a great, green color rather than the gray-green hued Spanish moss that you typically see. They actually had numerous moss colors available at this particular location.

I painted the Styrofoam ball with a mix of green acrylic paints to mask the white color from showing through any gaps in the moss coverage to follow. Once dry, I applied the moss.

TIP: A two-pack of cheap, aluminum, rectangular pans are great for projects such as this and I reuse them over and over.

 In one pan I placed out a thin layer of the moss, working it out flat like a blanket (so to speak). The other pan was used for spraying the ball with spray adhesive. I wore latex gloves to keep the adhesive off my hands. After the adhesive got tacky (about 30 seconds), I placed the ball right in the center of the moss layer and began wrapping the moss up and over it. I then picked it up and began squeezing the moss tightly and pushing it onto areas of the ball that were showing through. I let it set-up a few minutes and then for extra security, I began wrapping the sphere (ball) with some thin, green thread. I spiraled it all around the ball a few times to help hold the moss in place.




Once done, I placed the moss sphere on top of the newly-finished urn pedestal. 
Voila! A decorative indoor topiary





I decided to go a different route with the second urn and turned it into a candle holder (which it sorta was to begin with), but this time with a glass insert to house tea-lights only.




I actually created more moss spheres yesterday in a smaller size which I'll be using in groupings so stay-tuned to see the outcome!



Sharing this at:
Chic on a Shoestring Decorating - Flaunt It Friday
Happy Hour Projects - Freestyle Friday
Simply Designing
The Shabby Nest - Frugal Friday
At The Picket Fence - Inspiration Friday
Common Ground - Vintage Inspiration
REDOUX - Friday Link Up Party

8 comments:

  1. Very cute! I want to make two large topiaries to go outside on my front porch and Im trying to get ideas. I love the moss. Thanks for sharing! I hope you can link up to my Toot Your Horn Tuesday party next week :)

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  2. Very cute! i had two last week on my post but got no comments,JoAnn

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  3. 2 fabulous ideas!! I love the moss topiary and totally plan on copying the candle in the urn. :-) Thanks so much for sharing this with us at Inspiration Friday this week!
    Vanessa

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    1. Thanks for hosting Inspiration Friday for us "newbies". :-)

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  4. This is a great idea! I would love if you would share it at my blog party this weekend. Hope you can join in!

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  5. I love this! They cost WAY too much in stores, yours is just right! Visiting you from VIF and I'm your newest follower! Hope you'll stop by some time for a visit.

    Kathleen
    Charm Bracelet Diva {at Home}
    http://charmbraceletdiva.blogspot.com

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  6. Another "home run" for Frugal. Very nice, great idea's & suggestions, Thanks Frugal for all your new creations :)

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  7. I really like those urns. They look pretty small, that's nice. And topiaries are nice. A touch of green, some nature, but you don't have to worry about watering! Bonus. You have a very nice design perspective and I love how you mix in the old rusty stuff too. Thanks for stopping by P3! And don't worry about me...I'm not SAD...I just long for the sunshine by this time of year!!! Maybe I'll move to one of those sunny retirement states when I retire. :)

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