Egg Topiary

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Spring is perhaps my favorite season (shhhh.... don't tell the others) and it always seems like it is duly celebrated with a bit of wit and whimsy.  To that end, I created this egg topiary....a little moss, a few blossoms, some spring vines and of course, Easter eggs.  What says spring more than that!

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MATERIALS

Styrofoam cone

Candlestick

Moss

Faux flowers

Faux ivy

Faux eggs (see my tip for these below)

Grape or wisteria vine (an old grapevine wreath will do)

Floral pins or paperclips and wire snips

Hot glue

Spray glue

STEPS

Start by covering your cone with moss using the spray glue.  Do small sections at a time, using plenty of glue until your entire cone is covered.

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Take your flowers and clip the stems to 3 or 4 inches and insert them through the moss into the foam.  Insert them randomly around the cone using a mix of bloom texture and color.

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Add the ivy to the topiary.  I made my own floral clips for this by simply cutting one of the curved ends off of paper clips.  You get two pins per paper clip - pretty good deal!

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Attach the ivy as if it had wrapped itself up the topiary here and there.

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Now, if you don't have a grapevine or wisteria in the yard that needs pruning, take a grapevine wreath and pull off a few branches.  They're usually made of a few very long vines wrapped together, so pulling off one will probably be all you need.

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Pin one end down and wrap and pin the vine curving up around the cone.  Keep it loose and free form.

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Now, let's add the eggs!  I love country looking speckled eggs, but found them pretty expensive to buy, but very cheap to reproduce.  Simply get your regular plastic eggs, you could even use the really cheap brightly colored ones, but I started with plain brown ones.  If you are using the brightly colored ones, give them a base coat of spray paint in tan, white or robin's egg blue.  Then take some brown craft paint and water it down a tiny bit.  Dip a paint brush into the paint, push out most of the paint until you have a pretty dry brush and then use your finger to pull back the bristles slightly and then let go quickly flinging a spray of tiny brown droplets onto your egg.

Use hot glue to affix eggs to the topiary.  I like doing them in small clusters.

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Now use a bit of hot glue to attach the topiary to the top of your candlestick and you've got a table centerpiece that even the Easter Bunny would be proud of!