Flower Topiary *Spellbinder's dies*

Hello friends. Today I want to share a project I made just before the year ended last year. I participated in the Spellbinder's big craft contest and because I had a big obsessions with topiaries, I decided to make one as my entry for the contest. I took photos of the project during the process and that's what I'm sharing with you today in hopes that it will give you the inspiration to create something beautiful for your home today :)

Celebrate Flower Topiary

Supplies Used:

Grand Calibur, Spellbinders Die Cut Machine

Label’s Eight and Spiral Blossom Three die, Spellbinders

Foam ball- Styrofoam

Pattern papers- American Crafts. Authentique, DCWV, Creative Memories; Lily Bee Design; Kaiser Craft; Fancy Pants Design; GCD Studios; My Little Shoebox; Pink Paislee, Webster’s Pages; SEI; My Mind’s Eye, Imaginesce

Buttons- Vintage, Source Unknown

Twine- Caribbean, The Twinery

Stamp- Pretty Phrases, Paper Smooches

Embossing powder- Black, American Crafts

Ribbon- Celebrate it, Michael’s Craft Store

Glue sticks and Glue Gun- Glue Arts

Adhesive- Glue dot, Scrapbook Adhesive by 3L

Others- Vase, Moss, Toothpick, Green Foam; Dowel

Instructions:

1. Run various pattern papers through the Grand Calibur using the Spiral Blossom Three die. For my 6” Styrofoam ball I used about 40-60 pieces of spiral flowers. *This is a great project to use up those scraps of papers. The best papers to use are double sided so you have more options and designs to choose from.

2. Using a stick (pencil, dowel or in my case a paint brush) roll the die cut shape into a flower.

3. Use some glue gun on the bottom of the rolled flower to keep its shape together.

4. Do step 2 and 3 for the rest of the die cut flower shapes.

5. Stick the dowel on the Styrofoam ball. Put a little glue on the tip of the dowel before sticking it in the foam to keep it secure. Wrap some ribbon around the dowel. Glue the end of the ribbon to keep it secure. Trim excess.

6. Stick the die cut flowers on the foam using stick pins. If it gets hard to stick it, you can use a little hammer to help it through.

7. Do step 6 until you’ve covered the foam ball with the die cut flowers.

8. Add some vintage buttons on the centers of the flowers. Adhere the buttons with more glue.

9. Put together your flower topiary. Place some green foam inside the vase, stick the topiary in the center and cover the green foam with moss. *you can add some glue on the green foam so it would adhere to the vase but I preferred not to so I can use the vase for other projects if I wanted to in the  future.

10. Run a double sided paper (beige/pink) through the Grand Calibur using two nested pieces from the Labels Eight die cut pack; emboss the edges as well.

11. Emboss the sentiment onto the pink piece of paper.

12. Adhere the pink piece onto the beige paper. Add strips of papers to create a banner and a ribbon border on the bottom of the sentiment. Finish it off with some twine and a button.

13. Add a toothpick on the back of the title paper. Secure it with tape.

14. Stick the title piece on the front of the flower topiary. 

and here's a second look at the finished project. 

Oh and if in case you were wondering, my project was picked as an "honorable mention" winner in the contest. I was supposed to submit the project to the head office but because of my trip to Cali, I missed the deadline. It was okay cause when I saw the final winner, the project was super clever and definitely deserving of the coveted grand prize. 

Hope you enjoyed my project and tutorial. Have a great week.

Till next time,

Grace