Felt Flower Topiary

Materials Needed:
• 1 Styrofoam ball (6-8 in. diameter)
• Paint to match felt (optional)
• 1 wooden dowel (12-18 in. long)
• green ribbon
• 3-4 pieces felt, colors of choice
• floral pins OR craft/floral wire
• 4 pieces green tissue paper
• tin or pot
• sand

Directions:
1. Paint Styrofoam ball if desired. Painting the ball helps to camouflage the ball.

2. Wrap wooden dowel in green ribbon. Hot glue ribbon to dowel to keep in place.

3. Press dowel into Styrofoam ball about half way to form hole. Remove dowel.
4. Trace and cut 120-160 felt flowers (about 1.5 in. in size). Circles work just as
well. If you have a way to punch these out rather than to cut out by hand, DO IT!
5. Use floral pins to attach flowers/circles to Styrofoam ball. If you do not have
floral pins, cut out 120-160 pieces of craft/floral wire, approximately 3 in.
long. Fold in half to use as pins.
6. Begin pinning felt flowers/circles to Styrofoam ball. Space them out to begin
with, covering the ball loosely. After the ball is loosely covered, go over and
fill in little gaps with more felt flowers/circles. Fill until it reaches your
desired outcome.

7. Glue dowel to flower felt ball.

8. Fill bottom of tin or pot with sand to weigh down.
9. Take 4 pieces of tissue paper and fold in half length wise (“hamburger” fold).
Cut along fold. Place all 8 pieces of tissue paper on top of one another. Begin
fan folding paper, making 1.5 in. folds. Once entire stack is completely folded,
wrap a piece of craft/floral wire tightly around the center of the fan. Trim the
edges of the paper into points. Carefully begin pulling pieces of tissue paper
away from one another until shape resembles a ball. Put tissue ball in tin or
pot on top of sand. For an actual tutorial on this, go here:
http://www.marthastewart.com/how-to/tissue-paper-pom-poms-how-to
10. Place bottom end of dowel in the tin or pot (through the center of the
tissue ball for most support). VOILA! Simple topiary.