Lolly Tree – Topiary

These topiary trees make great gifts and decorations for holiday time. Use them at your front entrance at Christmas time or at Halloween. Give them as gifts to large families or take them along to a party.

What you need

Terracotta plant pot
Length of thick dowel
Styrofoam ball
Ribbons for decorating
Wrapped Xmas candy
Acrylic paints
Straight pins or hot melt glue
Plaster of Paris

Instructions

I have not given dimensions for these as you can make them in any size.

Start by buying a pot and then finding the right sized polystyrene ball and length of dowel so your topiary looks in proportion.

If you wanted to make a large topiary use a 12 inch pot.

Use a wooden broomstick handle for your stem and a large plastic/rubber ball for the top.

Fill your pot with plaster of Paris (use the packets instructions to make this mix) and then insert your piece of dowel and allow to dry.

Secure the polystyrene ball onto the piece of dowel by creating a small hole in the ball and inserting the dowel inside the ball. Add some white wood glue to hold this in place.

Note: Don’t use clear craft glue on polystyrene balls as it eats into the ball!!

If you want to, paint your pot and stem with some acrylic paints in a red or green color for Xmas.

Tie some small bows with the ribbon you have selected and use these as gap fillers.

Take your pins or a bit of hot melt glue and carefully secure the end of a lolly/sweet onto the ball.

Scatter these all over the ball and place some ribbons in between at various points to fill up the gaps.

They also look great totally covered in sweets. But this can be quite expensive for a large ball.