Thought you might want to see my new topiaries for the holidays.... I was pretty happy with the way they turned out.  Though I wasn't able to make as many as I originally intended.

Instructions follow....

Supplies: 

• small clay pots (these were the 2" variety) if you want a bigger topiary, use a bigger pot too
• 2 1/2" styrofoam balls (1 and 1/2 for each pot)
• deep forest green natural excelsior moss
• sticks of bamboo, about 12" long (one for each topiary) or you can buy them in very long lengths and cut them down yourself if you have a saw to do it.
• small to medium flowers with about a 1" stem clipped off their bunches

These really are super, super easy.  My husband even made some. : )

When you are picking out your flowers make sure they have a bit of strength in the stems.  You don't wanna be wrappin' picks around all those puppies.  This is supposed to be easy not torture.  Get all your bunches and start clipping away.  Leave about 1" to 1 1/2"  so you can be confident they won't fall out of the styrofoam.  If you're unsure, leave extra rather than cutting too much.  More than likely your stems will have a wire in them.  You can cut this with a regular old pair of scissors and not cuss yourself every two minutes for pinching your hand, if you're careful.  All you have to do is give a little turn around the stem with the blades, then snap it off by hand.  This works soooo much better than squeezing with all your might, pinching your hand in the process and smacking your husband in the head with a renegade stem.  Trust me, he won't think it's as funny as you do.

Okie doke so now that your flowers are all cut I recommend just piling em all up in one big bunch.  Mix all the colors if you are using different flowers.  Grab a styrofoam ball and start poking.  Your first mistake will probably be putting your flowers too close together.  Leave about 1/2 to 3/4 inch between any two stems.  This will certainly depend on how much your bloom 'spread' too.  After you have done about 4 or 5 together in a section, hold it away from you a bit and see what you think.  This isn't rocket science ; you can tell if they need to be adjusted.  Just poke em in all over and leave a flower out at the bottom.

Next, take the other styrofoam balls and cut em in half with a steak knife.  Or whateve else you have.... a steak knife was the quickest thing for me.    Take one have and place it down into the pot.  Give it a good shove so you know it's not going anywhere.  Now grab one of those bamboo sticks and shove it right down the center of your pot.  Make sure you take a peek at it from the side so you know it's standing straight up and down.  You don't want your topiary lookin like it shoulda had a V8!   

Take the flower ball, find the bare spot you left and shove that puppy down into the bamboo stick. 

Now for the messy part.  Be sure you're not on carpet when you do this..... take some of that moss and start stuffing it in the pots.  I've found that to get this down, I just have to poke and jab until it's not all hanging out.  You could also try some sort of adhesive I suppose.  But I was too excited to think of that at the time. 

That's it, you're done!  Except for the other 9 or so you plan on making. 

This really is an easy project  that is great for kids since it doesn't require any hot glue.  Now I know some of you are thinking, "You mean to tell me that all them flowers are gonna stay without glue?"  Yep, that's what I'm telling ya.  I made a much larger one with about a 5" ball the exact same way and it's been fine for about 3 years now.  And this thing has been knocked over I don't know how many times! 

A hint for making it more kid friendly.... paint your styrofoam balls with a green spraypaint first.  That way if the kids leave a little too much room, no one will notice.    Happy crafting!

Wanna see more fun things you can do with your family this holiday season?  Hop on over to Lilliput Station for some great ideas and Christmas fun!