Bug Party: Ribbon Topiary

Apparently, I was all about topiaries for this party. Or maybe party blogs are all about topiaries. Either way, this was a VERY ambitious project.

I found a few pictures of these through google searches and finally dedicated myself to making one. To be 100% honest, I originally was intending to make two. When one of the tutorials I found said it took 5 hours to make, I actually laughed out loud. 6+ hours later when I realized that was actually an UNDERestimation of time, I downgraded to one.

Supplies I used:

a styrofoam ball (~$2 using a coupon)

about a million feet of ribbon (~$5 - fancy ribbon $1 a spool on sale, plain ribbon 4 for $1 also on sale)

around 600 small dress pins (~$4 - 2 packs with coupons )

glue gun (all my own stuff!)

square floral styrofoam ($1 for pack of three from the dollar store)

paper shreds (~$3 - large bag used for all paper and ribbon topiaries)

small white planter (~$2 - on sale)

Here is the full tutorial with photos. I only took one sad, blurry photo of my topiary in progress that you can see here:

I don't have a great photo to showcase my topiary up close, but here it is proudly displayed on the cupcake/favor table at the party:

Bug Party: Centerpieces

When I was planning bug's party I really wanted to come up with a cute decoration to put on the tables. As I was inspired by the paper I found for the invitations, I wanted to use it in the rest of my crafts as much as possible. When searching the internet for party ideas, I came across Heather Bailey's paper globe tutorial. I instantly loved the idea and started trying to figure out how I could adapt it to my talents/budget/schedule. You can (and should!) read the whole tutorial if you want to make these, but here is how I adapted it.

• I wanted to make 6 of them and couldn't imagine cutting out and folding 120 circles by hand - I'm crazy, but not THAT crazy! I went out (with a 40% off coupon of course) and bought the largest Fiskar's circle punch I could find.
• Then, I chose 5 of my favorite paper prints and punched all my paper circles during the quiet early morning hours in the NICU while I was working nights.
• Next, I configured a triangle (by trial and error) to place in the center of each circle and discretely marked off the points so that I could use my Fiskar's paper cutter to score each circle.
• I used Elmer's no wrinkle glue and binder clips (to hold the circles together as they dried) for the assembly following the instructions in the tutorial.
• Small terra cotta pots were spray painted light blue to "plant" my topiaries.
• I found floral foam at a dollar store (which was a big savings as it is quite expensive) and used a small piece hot glued into the flower pot to anchor the topiary.
• For the "stems", I used wooden dowels cut in half and spray painted white.
• To put everything together I inserted one end of the dowel into the foam and the other into the paper globe. I tied a small piece of my leftover ribbon (the ribbon topiary is next!) below the globe and filled the pot in with crinkled paper shreds.

In the end, we only set up 4 guest tables, so I used the extra topiaries as decorations on the food tables. Here are a few more shots of the topiaries in action!

Cute as a Bug Party

My bug's big family and friends birthday party was this past weekend. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate and we elected to move the party from Saturday to Sunday. It was a bit warmer and there were only a few rain showers. As we have great family and friends, they all still came out and we really appreciated it!

In a series of posts I'll go through some of the details I worked on for the party. I'll warn you now that I wasn't patient enough to take step-by-step photos on each of the projects, but I'll give instructions when I can!

me and my bug enjoying the party despite the rain!