A Sweet DIY

Who knew math could be so fun? Your preschooler or kindergartener will delight in this counting activity that results in a beautiful holiday decoration for the whole family to enjoy. Your child can count out loud as he adds each gumdrop to the topiary, and as he sees how high he can go, he will be practicing important math skills! This activity will also help your child practice color recognition and learn about different materials and textures.

Beauty and the Beast – Lumiere_and_Cogsworth_Topiary – Disney Wiki – Wikia

Topiary is the art of trimming and shaping trees into sculptural, ornamental shapes. Disneyland boasts some of the most famous American Portable style topiaries. In the early 1960’s Walt Disney used the theme park’s landscape shrubbery to recreate his beloved cartoon characters. They continue to be a highlight today!

What You Need:

Large Styrofoam ball (this will be the “canopy” of your topiary)

Wooden dowel, up to 1” thick and approximately 15” long

Green spray paint

Flower pot or vase

Moss, faux grass, or shredded paper

Floral foam (available at your local arts and crafts store)

Toothpicks, broken in half

Gumdrops in many different colors

Ribbon (optional)

What You Do:

Spray the dowel green with the spray paint and let it dry completely overnight.
Cut a block of floral foam to fit inside the flower pot or vase and place it inside.
Help your child insert the dowel into the center of the Styrofoam ball about 3” deep.
Help your child insert the other end of the dowel into the floral foam all the way down so that it touches the bottom of the vase. Make sure the dowel is stable.
Have your child sort the gumdrops by color.
Have your child stick a gumdrop onto one end of the toothpick and push the other end of the toothpick into the Styrofoam ball. Working in rows, continue placing gumdrops all the way around the ball.
As your child works, ask him to count each gumdrop out loud. Occasionally ask how many of each color he has used or has left.
Once the Styrofoam ball is completely covered, assist your child in placing moss, faux grass, or shredded paper into the vase to cover the floral foam.
Tie a bow around the dowel with the ribbon (optional).
Now stand back and enjoy your new Candyland-inspired table topper!

Gumdrop Topiary #DIY – great for home #decor and parties! Fun #craft for #kids #math skills.

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Isn’t this a fabulously fun and festive DIY project? What a bonus that it provides practice with math skills, dexterity, and textures for your little ones too. This would even make a cute Mother’s Day present!

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How-To Create A Christmas Topiary

A Holiday DIY Project from Regular Contributor, Michelle James

Well, we are smack in the middle of the holiday season. I am slowly getting my decorating done, and will probably finish on Christmas Eve. I have wanted an outdoor Christmas topiary for a while now; so, this year I finally decided to make one.

How-to Create A Christmas Topiary

We had almost all of the supplies on hand for this project. The only thing I purchased was the large ornament from a home improvement store on sale for $7.99 and the set of 35 lights.

Supplies needed:

Outdoor Pot – I used one I already had that wasn’t full of dirt.

Saucer – This is a plastic saucer for pots and it happened to fit into the pot so it worked out perfectly. It was white so it got a coat of paint to help match it up with the pot a little better.

Dowel – (or something similar) We had some PVC pipe left over from a lighting project and it was perfect.

Filler – This is to fill the pot. In Iowa it gets pretty windy so some rocks went in as well. We also have a ton of foam insulation so that is what we used.

Large Ornament

Small ornaments

Indoor/Outdoor Christmas Lights – I used a 35 pk.

Learn how-to create your own #ChristmasTopiary for your home. #Holiday #Decor

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I have to give credit where credit is due. Since my husband got his hours cut at work, he has been helping me A LOT with my projects. He actually got the first part of this done for me. He is a great guy and deserves the credit.

He removed the gold hanging element off the top of the large ornament so there would be a hole for the dowel/PVC pipe. I actually turned the ornament upside down so it would look like a tree.

He drilled a hole in the middle of the saucer and spray painted it brown to match the pot.

He used some rocks and some filler inside the pot around the dowel/PVC to help it stay upright along with the help of the saucer. Then placed the ornament onto the PVC.

It fit nicely. This is the saucer before he had it painted but I thought it was a genius idea. The lights and the ornaments had a nice place to sit now.