Sometimes....or who am I kidding....I get these ideas.
I will admit to having a fairly good track record at bringing my ideas to fruition successfully.
These "Christmas topiaries" probably do not fall into that category. LOL!
While I do believe they are very pretty......they failed to say Merry Christmas.....while leaning more to speak Happy Birthday!
So join me here while I tell you a little about my Merry Christmas/Happy Birthday Topiaries....and I product that I am crazy about called Dixie Belle Mud!
I created these entryway topiaries in my private membership group Posh & Fancy. They were a LOT of fun to make and really quite easy.
It just required my painted urns (you can see that blog here), a few flocked wreaths from Walmart, a giant round ornament and chipboard cone tree from Hobby Lobby, some ribbon and jewels from Michaels, a hot glue gun.....two colors of Dixie Belle paint....and a jar of Dixie Belle Mud.
Dixie Belle Mud comes in three colors.....black, brown, and white. I prefer the white as I can tint it with paint to make it any color I want. For this project, I used white and it required no paint at all!
Dixie Belle Mud can be used to repair dents, gouges, scrapes....fill holes....or any other needed repair on your furniture piece...prior to painting. It has a consistency like no other repair putty on the market. It's like whipped mousse! It dries quickly......and sands back smoothly. It can be easily molded to any shape you'd like....and can even be used with stamping (see my gator nightstand project here).
I've always seen it as more of a repair tool.....and less of a creative tool. However....when I dreamed up this idea of creating Christmas trees that looked like frosting with embedded jewels.....my Mud came to mind.
I've always said if I weren't a painter....I'd love to decorate cakes! This project fed right into that dream. I was smearing on my white Mud like the finest of any buttercream frosting! I used my small pizza-shaped palette knife to just scoop....drop...spread and smooth each rainbow shaped swoop on cone. I'd swoop swoop swoop a row around the tree....and then press a flat-sided jewel into each swoop....allowing the mud to smoosh out around the jewel....just as you press candy into cake icing to hold it in place.
I worked on the vertical surface.....and had ZERO sliding of mud OR the jewels. The Dixie Belle Mud holds its place and shape.....and the jewels without any issues at all! It dried into the perfect soft white and required no tinting of paint.
However....the beauty of the white mud is you can make it any color you want prior to using! The mud is the perfect consistency to load into frosting bags and squeeze out decoratively for fancy faux treats.
Imagine the possibilities!!!
I plan to refresh my staging wall in my shop very soon.....and I plan to use the Mud to create a faux textured appearance. As a matter of fact....just writing this blog is making me want to cancel the rest of my plans today and get busy on that wall.
Anyway....my Christmas Topiaries have now been dismantled and put away. I likely will paint over them next Christmas for a whole new look!
PS....PRO TIP: be sure to store your MUD in the refrigerator. See??? It really wants to be icing!!!
