I was laying on the couch DYING recuperating from strep throat a couple of weeks ago when my Pottery Barn Catalogs came in the mail. My sweet hubby brought them over to me on my deathbed couch and as I turned through the pages, drooling over all the pretties, these caught my eye BIG TIME!
But even though I was delirious with fever I knew I would never pay $89.00 for an Easter decoration. I don't pay $89.00 for anything. Cuz I am cheap frugal! However all that couch laying paid off for me because the wheels starting turning on how I could make my own! And if you love it as much as I do I have made up a little tutorial. But first just for a little comparison - The total cost for this project was around $15.00 and my topiary is 40" tall, Pottery Barn's is only 30" tall for $89.00.
Supply List:
Tomato Cage
Hanging Basket
Newspaper
Glue
Green Paint
Plastic Easter Eggs (the kind that split in half long-wise) I used about 40 whole eggs so 80 halves
Moss (I got mine from the dollar store)
Glue Gun - with lots of hot glue sticks
Craft Paint in Pastel Colors (optional)
Ribbon or Twine
Step 1: Using hotglue, glue your tomato cage upside down on top of your hanging basket pot. The reason to use a hanging basket pot is that it has slits in it for the hangers to go in and they come in very handy to tie your tomato basket to. After the glue has set up. Tie the tomato basket to the planter pot for added stability.
Step 2: Tie the pointy ends of the tomato basket together very tightly and securely.
Step 3: Mix some white glue with water until the thickness is just a little thinner than milk. I use a big dishpan to mix mine in. You only need 1/2" or so in the bottom of your dishpan.
Step 4: Cut your newspaper into strips about 4" wide works well.
Step 5: Get your newspaper strips wet, just one at a time, and then drain the extra water/ glue mixture off. Wrap the wet newspaper around your tomato cage starting from the bottom and working your way up. You will want to make sure you overlap the edge of your planter pot just a little bit because the newspaper shrinks up as it dries. I used clothespins to help hold the wet newspaper onto the tomato cage.
Step 6: Let this dry and repeat until you have a nice hard shape. I let mine dry overnight between layers and I put on about 4 layers.
Step 7: After all the layers are dry you will need to paint the entire newspaper form green. This will help you when you are glueing the moss on so that you can't see any newspaper through it.
Step 8: If you are painting your plastic eggs you will want to do that now. I couldn't find any that opened the right way except for these lovely camo ones from the dollar store so I used acrylic craft paint to paint them. I did three coats to make sure they were covered really well.
Step 9: Using hotglue attatch your eggs to your topiary form covering as closely as you want. I didn't space mine as closely as the PB picture.
Step 10: Now it is time to fill all those spaces in with moss. This step takes a while and it takes alot of hotglue! I worked on mine in spurts.
I am so pleased with how it turned out. It is not a carbon copy but it is so awesome to find something you love and use it as inspiration for a project of your very own. The Pottery Barn picture was just a jumping off point. Something to get me thinking, and I LOVE the results.
