Egg Topiary {Tutorial}

Sorry that this has taken me forever to post but you know how life just sometimes gets in your way of the fun things and just wants you to do boring things instead, booo to you adult life!

Anyway, this topiary is pretty much as easy as it gets - no sewing, minimal measurements, no sticking yourself with pins!
When I originally made THIS egg shaped topiary I had no idea what I was doing so I didn't take any photos and wouldn't you know it, I had only bought 1 paper mache egg and 1 Styrofoam egg. So my original was done on the paper mache, and this tutorial you will see I used the Styrofoam egg, so now we know you can use either! Oh yeah, and I ran out of those pretty ribbons so I had to use what I had on hand - I am not a fan of this combo so I didn't make it into a topiary, it is currently being used as a football by my daughters.

Here goes!

yes, I store my glue upside down at all times!

Supplies:

• egg - either paper mache or Styrofoam
• ribbon - 3 or 4 coordinating ribbons (or you can do all one ribbon, too) - amt will be determined by size of your egg, see below
• glue (I love my Beacon 3-in-1 Advanced Craft Glue)
• measuring tape or string & ruler
• scissors
• wood dowel
• pot or pail or bucket
• Styrofoam or floral foam

Instructions:

 

1. measure the circumference of your egg 

2. add about 1/2" to your measurement and cut your first piece of ribbon to that length (you can cut all your ribbon in the beginning or cut each piece as you go if you don't want to be left with unused length of cut ribbon) both of my eggs took about 10 pieces of ribbon but it all depends on the size of your egg and the width of the ribbons you've chosen

3. add a dab of glue to the top of your egg, attach one of the ribbon to the glue and wrap your ribbon all the way around the egg coming back to the same spot you started - it is very important that you pull the ribbon tight and come back to the exact same spot you started in (you can't use pins because you are going to be going back to the same place over and over again and the tip of the egg is just too small to accommodate 30 pins!)

4. add another dab of glue to the top and secure your ribbon

5. cut another piece of ribbon if you chose not to pre-cut

top look

6. turn the egg in your hand, add a dab of glue to the top of the egg (this time on top of the 1st ribbon) and repeat steps 3, 4 & 5, making sure to pull tight and to overlap the ribbons slightly

bottom look

7. continue all the way around your egg til it is completely covered.

see the overlapping

(end of tutorial photos)

8. now you could stop here if you don't mind the ribbon overlaps showing - however I created a bow and pinned it to the top of the egg to cover up all the ribbon ends

9. to get the dowel through the ribbon and paper mache use a craft knife of your scissors and cut two slits in the ribbon to create an X shape - you don't have to go too deep

10. shove the dowel through that X you just created - if you have used the paper mache egg make a pool of glue over the X before you shove that dowel in there

11. prepare your bucket/pail/pot with a small tight fitting piece of Styrofoam

12. shove dowel in center of the Styrofoam, use fake grass or moss or paper shreds or jelly beans to cover Styrofoam - if you have extra ribbon you can decorate the dowel or pot

13. step back and admire your work

14. take a photo and share it on my Facebook wall!

So that's it! So easy, right?!?