By Brenda Hyde

You'll need:

4" Styrofoam ball

2 1/2" Styrofoam ball

6" wooden dowel

2 1/2" terra cotta pot

craft glue or hot glue

small handful of spanish moss

natural raffia

pencil

Seeds *see instructions

Glue the 21/2" ball into the terra cotta pot. Push firmly on the ball with your fingers until it's crushed down into the pot-level with the top. Make a hole in the center of the foam with a pencil.

Glue the wooden dowel into the hole you made in the center of the pot foam. Now make a one deep hole in the bottom center of the 4" ball and squeeze glue into it. Place on top of the wooden dowel and secure it-allowing it to dry. I think hot glue works well for this. At this point you have your topiary base created, and you can decorate it. Look around your garden, backyard, in the park etc. for interesting small seeds heads. There are SO many once you start looking. Bring back what you've collected and sort them onto small paper plates, bowls or other shallow containers. Spread craft or hot glue over small sections of the 4" inch ball and carefully apply the seeds. You can make a collage of seeds or use all one kind. Allow it to dry completely. Lay a small amount of Spanish moss over the top of the pot to cover the foam. You can also glue some on the dowel itself to cover it, or you can paint the dowel if you wish. Tie a raffia bow around the stem when you are finished either way. You can now leave the topiary as is, or get even more creative and add tiny dried flowers, rosebuds or other dried flowers.

This is a neat project for adults or kids. You can also make seed "balls" in the same way without the dowel and pot! These can be placed in a small basket for decoration, or you can use a pin to attach a piece of raffia as a hanger and create natural ornaments.

About the Author:

Brenda Hyde is Mom to three little ones, a freelance writer and editor here at OldFashionedLiving.