Today on Mass Appeal we will be teaching you how to make beautiful floral topiaries and candy beehives using dollar store flowers and old costume jewelry. Here’s what you will need:

TOPIARIES

1 Heavy flower pot

*Plastic doesn’t work well because you need substantial weight to keep the balls of flowers from falling down.

1 Bag of rocks or glass marbles

A glue gun and glue sticks

1 Bag of dried moss

20 Stocks of silk flowers (The more flowers the better!)

An assortment of old brooches, earrings and beads

1 Dowel

1 box of pearl head pins

1-3 Styrofoam balls

*Depending on the size of topiary you want

1 Square of styrofoam

1 Roll of green floral tape

1 Pair of wire cutters

Step 1: First, you want to cut the flowers so there is about 2-3 inches of the stem left. This will ensure you will have enough length to push the flower into the styrofoam. (Cutting the flowers too short will make them fall out.)

Step 2: Glue the square inside the ceramic or terracotta pot, then put rocks around it to weigh it down. Cover with glue, then top with dried moss for decoration. (the more hot glue the better on this step!)

Step 3: Push the dowel into the center of the styrofoam, then glue securely. Next you will push the styrofoam ball down the dowel and glue it securely.

Step 4: Cover the dowel with green floral tape starting from the bottom and wind up. Pull the tape lightly as you wrap so it expands and sticks to the dowel, then glue the ends lightly.

Step 5: Start with the larger flowers like lillies or roses. Push the stems in to the ball and GLUE GLUE GLUE! Remember, in nature flowers grow in twos so be sure to evenly distribute them on the ball.

Step 6: Fill in the space with medium flowers leaving spaces for the smaller sized flowers, then follow with the small flowers. (When choosing a color palette, remember to accent the highlights of the flowers with like colors. For example, if you choose white flowers with pink highlights, choose small pink flowers. Usually you don’t want more than 2-3 colors but, beauty IS in the eye of the beholder!)

Step 7: Take a strand of beads or pearls and securely glue around the flowers. Feel free to use pins between the beads if need be. Drape the beads, pearls or rhinestones around the flowers so the flower stems hold up the beads.

Step 8: Take the brooches and push the pin part into the styrofoam and glue securely on the back. You can also glue earrings in the the center of the flowers.

Step 9: Take the extra leaves from the unused flowers and fill in the bald spots.

You can make a 2 or 3 tiered topiary using these same instructions.

CANDY BEEHIVES

2 Packages of butterscotch candies in the wrapper

2 styrofoam cakes

1 skein of yarn

Hot glue gun and glue

Costume pearls, beads, brooches or earrings

*Optional toy or figurine

Step 1: Glue the two styrofoam cakes together to make the “hive” shape.

Step 2: Wind the yarn around the styrofoam in a figure 8 pattern. You will want to glue the yarn every few layers. Rotate the styrofoam and keep winding and gluing until the entire hive is covered in yarn EXCEPT the top and the bottom.

Step 3: Place a dab of hot glue on the end of the packaged butterscotch candy and glue onto the bottom row of the hive so the plastic wrapper is situated vertically. Then glue the next piece so the end of the wrappers are right next to each other. (The video will help you understand this part better.) Once you have glued the entire bottom row, secure the design by placing a rubber band around the row of candy.

Step 4: Start on the top row of candy but glue in the opposite direction.  Secure with a rubber band.

Step 5: Place four circles of hot glue on the bottom of the hive and let dry so it is level.

Step 6: Take beads or pearls and wind them around the top of the hive and glue in place. Decorate with earrings, bee pins and or bear figurines!

*If you use yellow yarn and pearls, the hive looks very much like honey. I glued bee pins and little ceramic bears on the top. Your kids and guests will love tearing off a piece of candy from the hive. I put these in my store and they are always bare within a week. One great thing about this craft is, it’s both decorative and reusable. When the candy is gone, just glue on some more! I hope you enjoyed our DIY segment today. We look forward to seeing you at Fancy That Antiques in Wilbraham. Be sure to tune in to Mass Appeal every three weeks for more DIY ideas.

Happy Crafting,

Malena Chipps

Creative Craft Consultant for Mass Appeal