An Imperfect DIY Topiary

I am loving topiaries these days! I've been seeing them everywhere lately...blogs, catalogs, stores, and more. I decided a topiary would be the perfect centerpiece for my mantel that needed a serious re-vamp so I went about making one. Yes, I made one. Wanna see?!?! Okay here ya go:Sorry about the blurry pic...I was impatient! Oh and SO WHAT if the stick is leaning a little bit. Get over it! ;-) And it took about 3 times as many fake flowers as I originally anticipated so there is definitely a bald spot at the bottom for the time being (a.k.a. until I get unlazy). I CAN'T BE PERFECT PEOPLE!

So basically to make it I just followed this tutorial on a blog that I love. However I'm still going to type out how I did it because I did change a few things.

1. Spray painted a clay pot with a couple coats of black paint, let dry, and sponged on the white circles.

2. Bought a dowel rod, cut it down to the height I wanted for my topiary, and spray painted dark brown. Then doggie decided to help me with the "weathered" look and proceeded to steal it off the table as it was drying and put some nice teeth marks in it. At first I was peeved about this but then I realized the teeth marks actually made it look more like a real stick! The jokes on me I guess!

3. Bought a styrofoam ball and 4 bunches of fake yellow flowers (they were on sale 50% off...thank goodness because this could get pricey). Like I said, this required way more flowers than I originally anticipated so beware! Pulled all the flower buds off the stems.

4. Hot glued flower buds around the strofoam ball, bunched tightly so you can't see any styrofoam, although I will say my foam ball was green and so were the centers of my flowers so it really didn't look that bad if there were tiny bits of foam showing...it just looked like a flower center...but I digress.

5. Bought styrofoam and cut it to fit in the bottom of the clay pot. Stuck the dowel into the flower ball and into the clay pot styrofoam. Hot glue into place for the most stability.

6. Bought a bag of moss and hot glued moss all over the top of the clay pot to cover the styrofoam base.

7. Voila! That's it. I am probably going to add a decorative ribbon to the dowel eventually to add a little more pizazz.

And to wrap it up, here's my new re-vamped mantel. I forgot to take a before picture but trust me, this is MUCH improved and totally different.It still needs more but for now I'm loving it! I plan on purchasing some fake flower to put in the green vase to add some height soon. I love the green with the black and white, though. Here's another view: