HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY !!!
After the holidays, I always have trouble with taking down my decorations because my house seems so naked! One of my biggest struggles from now until fall will be how to decorate my mantle. So with a little hunting and a lot of debate, trial and error etc... I present to you, my Valentine's Day decorating. Starting with this cute pink and red flower topiary! :)
For this project you will need a terra cotta pot, a styrofoam ball, a wooden dowel, a styrofoam base that will fit the pot, ribbon to cover the dowel, hot glue and your choice of flowers. I found that really wide flowers work best and will be less time consuming.
I wanted a really big topiary, so my pot is an 8 inch pot and the styrofoam ball is a 7 inch ball. It took me four bunches of flowers from the flower section of Micheal's to fill the ball.
The first thing I did was place the styrofoam in the base of the pot. This was stuff I had left over from other projects, so that is why you see holes already in the foam.
Once I was done putting the foam in the base, I decided on the height of my topiary and cut down the wooden dowel to the height. Then using tiny amounts of hot glue and ribbon, I covered the dowel with the silver ribbon.
I then filled the pot with five flower heads and greenery and then placed the dowel in the center of the arrangement.
Sometimes you need a little tacky glue or low temp hot glue to secure the dowel in the base.
Then I put a little low temp hot glue on the other end of the dowel and firmly pushed the big white Styrofoam ball into the top of the dowel. At that point, you can start cutting the tops of the flower stems off. Make sure about an inch of the flower's stem remains to push into the styrofoam. and begin to place the flowers into the ball. Be sure you don't push them too close together, so it will look crowded and squashed.
Add a bow to the bottom of the ball and there you have it!!! a valentine topiary!
Once that was done, I added other elements to my mantle like clearance Christmas flowers I found at Jo-Ann fabrics, old broken picture frames that don't have glass anymore, an old window frame, ivy, and white feather butterflies.
A few new purchases like these wooden letters to spell out L (foam ring with flowers for the "O") V E, a "Be Mine" banner from Target, and sparkly glitter hearts completed the mantle.
And here is a peek at some of the other decorations I put out for the season!!!
Happy Valentine's Day everyone! COMING SOON!!!! KITS BY CALICO CRAFTS!!! Buy kits to make some of what you see on my blog!!!
