Bathroom Topiary

As promised, here is a tutorial for the cute little bathroom topiary you got a sneak peek of over in my Finished Wall Art post.

I originally got the idea from Greenbean's Crafterole (her's are way cuter than mine!), and decided it was time to put my own spin on the cute decoration for my mini-bathroom overhaul.

First stop was good old Target.  I was able to pick up 50% of my supplies there...the rest I had lying around the house.  Here's what you need:

All of the supplies I purchased came from the $ spot at Target, woohoo!  Bucket, ribbon, and Loofah (2/$1).  I actually purchased the ribbon for another project, but it fit right in.  Now for the supplies I had lying around - Chopsticks (which I used for a dowel, you can use anything.  If you remember from my last topiary project, I used an unsharpened pencil), glue gun, tissue paper, and colored gems.

First step, cover the dowel in ribbon.

Cover dowel (chopstick in my case) with ribbon

I added a small dot of hot glue, attached the ribbon and started wrapping.  I only covered about 3/4 of the way down the chop stick because the bottom half will be covered inside of the bucket.  Once you get down as far as you need to go, end with another dot of hot glue to secure everything.

Now, make a rather large glob of hot glue on the uncovered end of your dowel (chopstick in my case) and attach to the center of your bucket.  Hold in place for at least 30 seconds while the glue cools down and firms up.

You should then be able to let go and your dowel will be securely in place.  Because I didn't have any empty ribbon rolls hanging around, I just rolled up tissue paper to use as space fillers.  Again, this step is so that you need less of the gems to fill the bucket.

I then attached the Loofah.  Cut off the excess loop of rope. (this is so you can hang a loofah in the shower, but you don't want it hanging down from your topiary.  Just be careful not to cut it too close, because this is also what holds to Loofah together!)  I then found the center, added a generous amount of hot glue, and stuck on top of the dowel (chopstick).  Hold in place for at least 30 seconds to make sure the glue has cooled down and firmed up.

If necessary, add more glue to make sure everything stays in place securely.  Once everything seems fairly solid, it is now time to add the decorative filler to the bucket in order to cover up the tissue paper.  I happened to have gems lying around that were the perfect complimentary color to my bucket.

Excuse the blurriness!

Now, your topiary is complete!

 Don't you think its a whimsical but cute accessory for the bathroom?  I love how they turned out, and I think the added pop of color brighten up the room immensely!  And the best part?  This project cost my $2.50!  I did end up making two, which came out to $4 (buckets - $1/each, Loofah - 2 for $1, ribbon - $1, everything else I already had at home) talk about a bargain!   Here they are in place:

 Stay tuned for another bathroom spruce up project later this weekend...and the full bathroom reveal next week.  Thanks for stopping by!





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