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Topiary from Dollar Christmas Trees
© Stephie McCarthy
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We made easy topiaries using Christmas trees that cost just one dollar each.
They look great year round, for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Spring decorations too. Check out the chalkware bunnies (coming in 2023) and the faux candy egg tree. We made those too.
We used spray-painted and natural dried flowers.
The plastic fir trees are a great short cut in making topiaries.
Costing just one dollar each, they are designed to look like natural trees.
The branches are plastic and wire, not paper leaves. The first step was to unfold and spread the branches.
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We removed the wrappers covering the base …
The base of artificial trees like these are usually weighted plaster, making them easy to use for topiary.
We taped the base of the tree into a smaller flower pot.
We placed the smaller flower pot inside the larger …
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To make beautiful pots from lampshades, perfect for topiary,
check out this project.
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… and covered the tape with natural moss. If you don't have moss, you can use marbles, faux greens, or even dried peas or beans.
Hydrangeas thrive in our shady garden with cobalt blooms in summer, fading to green, cyan, pink, and purple toward fall.
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Coloring silk flowers with chalk
You can also buy dried blossoms online, gather them from local gardeners, or use silk. Our tutorial on coloring silk flowers with chalk is here. Even lovely tinted silk flowers can benefit from a dash of extra color.
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How to dry colorful hydrangea blooms
To dry fresh hydrangea, remove the leaves and leave them in water under a light. We used LED plants lights and left the blooms for a month with continuous light, letting the water evaporate over time.
Lots of our blooms dried beautifully. Some were faded.
These are naturally blue, dried blooms below.
We decided to boost the color even more with light coatings of spray paint in matte finish. You can use a Satin finish, if you use a light touch with the paint.
Spray Painting Dried Flowers
Rust-Oleum "Wildflower" was our favorite blue for this project (bottom center), but we used all these colors, and more, in light, multi-layered spray painting.
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Check the price of Rust-Oleum Wildflower Blue Spray Paint
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We layered greens, aquas, and blues. Even cranberry reds look great on hydrangeas. If anything looks too brash, go over it lightly with lime green … it's a great blender.
We found that orange roses dried with the most wonderful color, but most of our other dried flowers needed a light coat of spray paint with pinks or yellow.
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Assembling the Topiary
When paint is dry, we cut small rectangles (1" x 1" x 3.5" — three blocks per tree) of floral foam using a serrated kitchen knife.
Use green, blue, or brown tape to attach the blocks to the stem around the top branches.
We broke the hydrangea stems to 4-5" long, pushed them into the foam, and began to shape the topiary globe.
We covered the foam and cut away the pine needles that were a bit too long.
--
To make beautiful pots from lampshades, perfect for topiary,
check out this project.
--
Finishing touches
We used a wire cutter. Save cut branches to use as filler in other decorations, and don't worry about leaving pine cones or small needle bristles on the stem. These will add to natural textures.
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Shaping the topiary to match the proportions of the container helps in creating a balanced design.
Our topiaries were a bit more exuberant, however, so after another light layer of "Wildflower" …
… we firmly pressed the globe of blooms into a spherical shape. Some of the petals broke loose, but not enough to disappoint.
We tucked roses and other dried flowers here and there for bursts of color.
For a little bling, we used FolkArt Color Shift Green Flash paint applied with a cotton swab to some of the petals that still lacked color.
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check the price of Green Flash FolkArt paint on Amazon
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Ready for display …
… year round, and for every holiday.
Our Chalkware, Chalk-Colored, Bunny Tutorial
Coming in 2023!
Our first try at making chalkware, plus tinting them with sidewalk chalk!
Our Faux Candy Easter Egg Topiary Here
Delicious and calorie free using plastic eggs and dimensional paint.
Our Newest Free Printables are here …
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