Dollhouse Miniature Topiary

 

Watch  the video here.

This week I thought it would be fun to make a simple topiary. I used what I had on hand and this tutorial is meant to be a general guide for you to create a topiary from what you have on hand.

For mine I decided to use one of the wooden candle cups that I have in my stash. You can use anything that is about the same size to make a similarly size plant. The candle cup measures 1 ½” tall and 1 ¼” in diameter (about) at the widest area. I had actually wanted to use one of the plastic shot glasses but I seem to be out of those. So this is what I quickly found to use.

 

The first step was to add some texture to the outside of the pot. I started by winding some embroidery floss around the pot at the point it is narrower. I used thick tacky glue to hold everything in place.

 

 

Next I added some thick jute cord around the bottom of the pot.

And then another band of the jute around the top edge. Do try to keep the joints in the heavy cord on the same side of the pot.

Then I found some embossed stickers in my stash and used one that I think was supposed to be a border around the center of the pot. If you use stickers do be sure to go ahead and use a good glue to hold them in place. The sticky on a lot of stickers will not hold up for very long especially once we cover them with paint.

Now let all the glue dry.

Now the entire outside of the pot as well as down inside a ways needs a coat of a mat black craft paint. This is going to blend everything together and give us a base to work on. You might find that you like how your pot looks after just the black paint and that is fine. If so you can skip the next step.

Since I wanted to highlight my texture a bit more I added a very thin coat of a silver paint. I actually brushed it on lightly then wiped off most of it. That way it just acts as a highlight and my pot is still black not silver. Allow to dry.

 

Now a coat of a clear sealer will keep all the finishes intact and make the pot look much better.

 

While the sealer is drying we can work on the plant that will go into the pot. I used a foam ball (it’s about 1 ½” in diameter) because that was what I had on hand. You could use a foam ball, a bead, whatever is in your stash when you go to make this. It doesn’t even need to be round, topiaries are trimmed into a lot of different shapes in real life.

For the stem/trunk of my plant I used a piece of a branch. It is part of the ones I collected when I was preparing to do the wood for the fireplace. For this project I picked a piece that was pretty straight and a diameter that I felt looked right with the foam ball. You could also use a dowel or a wooden skewer for yours.

 

First step is to glue the foam ball onto the stick using some tacky glue.

Next we need to give the white foam a coat of leaf green paint. That is because if we don’t it is going to be really hard if not impossible to cover up the white if we miss any spots on the next couple of steps.

 

Once the paint is dry coat the foam ball with a thin glue, I used the same Mod Podge I used to finish the pot. Try to not miss any spots. Then cover the layer of glue with some dry herbs. I looked in my cabinet for the bottle that looked like it was starting to fade in color the worst and used some of that. Allow this glue to get completely dry, overnight is best for this step.

 

One the glue is dry it is time to paint the leaves of our topiary. For this I used the same leaf green that I painted the foam ball with as well as a tiny bit of a light green and a bright green. I find the that using a little bit of a couple of other greens helps to make this look more realistic. You don’t need much and you can use whatever greens you have in your paint stash. I like to use a flat brush like what is used for stenciling for this since then I can put the paint on with a pouncing motion as opposed to a brushing motion. This helps to not knock off as many leaves.

Allow the paint to dry.

 

While the green paint dries we can get the pot ready to use. I was pretty sure this was going to be top heavy so I wanted to add some weight to the bottom of the pot. All I could find were these little magnets but anything will work to add weight. Normally I would use some nuts off a bolt or some washers but I couldn’t find any.

 

 

 

Add some glue to the inside of the pot, add your weights, and then add some foam to the pot. I am using some floral foam today. Try to fill the top of the pot as well as possible. Then add a coat of water based dark brown paint. Allow to dry.

 

 

 

 Once all the paints are dry trim the stick your topiary is on to the height you want for your plant.

 

 

The first step is to add a layer of thick tacky glue to the top of the foam in the pot and add a layer of dried out coffee grounds. We use these on the channel for soil a lot and I almost always have a jar of them on hand. These are coffee grounds that have been used to make coffee and then dried thoroughly in the oven. If done correctly they will work really well and I’ve been using them without problems for about 30+ years in various mini projects.

Now while this glue is still wet we need to add the topiary to the pot. Start by making a hole in the foam/soil with the stem of the topiary. Then since this is a larger stem I pulled it out and added some glue to the stem and replaced it back in the pot. Add more soil as needed to cover any glue showing around whee the stem goes into the soil. And allow to dry.

 

 

 

 

Once dry the topiary is ready to display in/around your dollhouse/mini scene.

 

 

As always I do want to sincerely thank all of you for watching my videos and reading my blog posts. It means so much to me that you are supporting me in this way. If I could ask you all to do just a bit more by subscribing to the channel and liking the videos and leaving comments. Those help more than you can imagine. Also if you could pass the links on to your friends I would appreciate it so much.