The theme of my upcoming baby shower is Old Fashioned Candy Shoppe and everything (that I've seen) is looking super cute so far! There are a few last minute projects that I've been helping my mom with, including these candy topiaries. We have two more to make using the Dum-Dums but today we made the ones with spice drops. This is a simple, though time consuming, project.
What You Need:
* Spice Drops
* Foam Balls (we used 6 inch)
* Toothpicks (and scissors to cut them with)
* Ribbon &/or Tulle
* Wooden Dowels (cut to desired height; we cut ours in half)
* Hot Glue Gun
* Pot/ Planter
* Foam Square & Some sort of weights (we used river rocks)
Directions: Select a ribbon to wrap your wooden dowel with. Leave a few inches blank at the top and bottom. Secure with a hot glue gun.
Create your hole with the wooden dowel so that you can add the candy around it. Cut your tooth picks in half (probably optional but it worked for us).
If you do cut your toothpicks in half you should use the pointy side to push in the candy and the cut side into the foam ball (opposite of pictured). I realized after this first row that it might cause a splinter and we definitely do not want that!! ;) Continue adding candy until you've completely covered the foam ball. You can keep your ball in place by placing it in the pot that will later be your base. If your ball is still rolling around you can keep it in place by laying a paper towel down on the pot and then setting your ball on it. This worked really well for me!
Use hot glue to secure the wooden dowel to your gumdrop-covered ball. Do the same on the bottom to secure it into the foam square. The ball is surprisingly heavy so be prepared to balance the weight with something. We used river rock.
Cut two 4 foot strips of tulle. Gather into a big bow and use the ends to loop around and tie it together. Create two of these and use them to cover the river rock by tying them to the dowel.
Viola!!
