Welcome Amigos!

I’m so excited to share with you how I put together the centerpieces for my GF Yaso’s Mad Hatter Bridal Shower.  Please make sure you check out the pictures if you haven’t already!

Here’s what I was able to put together using mostly stuff I had lying around the house!

So cute, am I right?!  And it would work for a bunch of different celebrations other than a tea party… maybe Easter, Princess Party, Book Club, Baby Shower – lots of options there!

First things first.  Do you have a tea pot?

I didn’t have anything like this, so I started going to a few thrift shops once a week to scour for unique pots and tea cups.  Each of these was $5 bucks or less!

Randomly, the polka dot one was from Ikea!

I didn’t want to ruin the actual pots, so I made bases for the topiary sticks using plastic cups filled with plaster of paris.

I filled the cups 1/2 way with water and then added spoonfuls of the plaster until there was a pudding consistency.  For the stick?  An extra long chopstick that’s used for cooking.  I grabbed a pack of 5 for $1.50 at Daiso, a Japanese dollar store nearby, but I’ve seen these all over the place.  You can also use a dowel for a steal and cut it down to size.

To keep the chopstick in place, I simply taped it to one of my kitchen cabinets for stability.  The level is out, but really I just eye-balled to make sure it was straight, from all angles.

It looks like an ordeal, but it took me about 15 – 20 minutes to do 4 of these cups.  They set up quickly, so do one at a time.  Give em a good 2 hrs before moving them just to be safe.

Next up?  The actual topiary balls!

I snagged a bunch of shredded paper from my office and used flour!  That’s it!!!

Fill a plastic shopping bag 1/2 full with your paper (don’t use all your paper just yet!) and gradually add water until the paper is mildly saturated.  Then add flour until the paper starts to break down and feel a little slippery.

To form the actual spheres, take some dry shredded paper as the center and then cover them with the wet, slimy mixture.  They will dry much faster this way!

After a few hours of sitting outside some of the spheres began to sag under the weight.  I just rotated them, but I didn’t stress about it too much because…

As soon as they’re dry, you’ll cover them in moss!

Using my trusty glue gun, I simply attached chunks of moss at a time.

Make some holes (I actually busted out the drill!) and thread them on your topiary chopstick.

Now you can decorate them anyway you like, but I used ribbon and book pages to embellish mine.

Cut out butterflies with a paper punch.  Two punches for each butterfly will give you a 3D effect when they’re stacked.

Make your ribbon flowers.  I learned how here.  Here’s my tip, though, DON’T cut your ribbon until AFTER you make the flower.  That will save you sooooo much ribbon!!  With one dollar spool from Joanne’s I was able to make 12 small flowers since I didn’t waste any!!

With very thin, pliable wire, wrap your chopstick around the base of a sphere 4-5 times and glue the end onto the ball, hiding it in the moss.

Attach a butterfly or two on the wire so that it looks like it’s flying around your topiary!

Then attach your flowers and butterflies using a glue gun.  I did two variations… one with flowers on the actual topiary spheres and one with flowers hiding the chopstick.

Using double stick tape, I secured the plaster of paris cups to the inside of the tea pot.  That worked well for the larger tea pots, for smaller ones, you might want to add some small pebbles, rice or colored sand for extra support – especially if it’s windy outside!

How super cute is this on the table?!  And then you can give them to the guests as party favors/gifts or hey, keep ’em for yourself!!

I’ll share more party ideas in a few days!

But what do you think?  Totally doable, yes?!?

Happy Creating!  Jessica