Valentine's Day Topiaries~

Today's craft project; Valentine Topiaries~
Applying moss to various shapes- cardboard cutouts, or Dollarstore Valentines plaques. I painted the plaque green, before applying the moss. I glue the moss on with a glue gun, thinly applying it to the edges and creases of the letters first,  then- do the flat surfaces. Do the back last.



I always twist a few branches together and join the ends with duct tape,
so the stem looks more natural, and not so much like a "pole".
I use doubled or tripled (glued together) cardboard box- cut out shapes.
There seems to be 2 types of florist foam out there~ "wet" (softer) and the hard
kind, meant for dried floral arrangements. I used the hard kind.
I always put it on the stick, and  insert my topiary LAST. 
If not, the hole becomes loose, and the stem wabbly as you glue on the moss.
Beware of glue gun strings. These should be cut off the moss with scissors~ (in order not to pull the moss off with it.) The moss is patted on, with a bunch of it in my hand. In order not to lose the letters definitive shapes, critical corners of the letters ate covered with  moss dust- the finer stuff that has fallen loose out of the bag. I prefer the brown and green kind of moss, as the I found that the very green kind made it look too fake. You will need quite a few glue sticks for this craft project~
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7 comments:

  1. These turned out so cute.. Love them, and so glad to see you posting again. Just an FYI, a hot blow dryer dissolves the 'strings', just blow over it. It also gets rid of the loose pieces so I suggest doing it over a trash bag.

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  2. Love this idea! Quick question..... you glue 2-3 pieces of cardboard together. Then do you just glue the moss to the cardboard? Sorry... It's probably obvious to everyone else, but I wasn't sure if you added foam to the cardboard before adding the moss. Thanks in advance for helping me out!!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Penny, Yes, after glue gunning the cardboard together, I painted it green, then I glued moss to it. You can make any shape this way :)

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    2. Thanks!! Love this project and want to try it! I'm not super-crafty, but gonna try my hand at this one!

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  3. I've joined your new blog, what a nice project! You are so talented!
    Melinda

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  4. Thanks so much for a great tutorial ! I'm always looking for a new different craft to make. Will be giving this a go for sure! Have a great week! Hugs Marg.

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