Initially, the art of topiary is a topiary of bushes and trees, which decorated the gardens of high-ranking persons. This technique has been known since ancient Rome, but today needlewomen use this term to create amazingly beautiful and surprisingly diverse artificial trees to decorate a home, office or halls for special occasions.
What are the topiary made of?
For the manufacture of topiary, you can use any materials at hand: shells, flowers, grains, beads, seeds, artificial buds, cones, ribbons, trimming fabrics and much more. The most common napkins can be the basis for creating a small tree. Moreover, from this cheap and affordable material, you can make the most diverse forms. It can be buds resembling carnations, dandelions, various roses. Thus, the topiary of napkins can be very different. And to make them is not at all difficult.
Materials for work
To make topiary from napkins, you need to prepare the necessary materials in advance. Depending on the complexity of the process and the time allotted, work can take from one to three evenings. To create a do-it-yourself topiary from napkins, you will need the following materials: napkins of the required color, ball base, glue gun, stapler, pot for a tree, a twig for the trunk, gypsum and decorative elements.
Almost all the materials needed to create a do-it-yourself topiary from napkins can be replaced with others, which makes the creation process even more creative. So, the glue gun needed to glue flower blanks to the base can be replaced with thick PVA or any transparent construction glue.
In most cases, the base of the topiary is the ball. Ready-made foam blanks for work are sold in stores. But you can easily do without them. From two or three sheets of the newspaper you can crumple a dense ball of the desired diameter (about 8 cm or more if you need a large ball). Wrap the workpiece in threads like a ball, giving a rounded solid shape. To simplify the work, you can wet your hands with water so that the edges of the paper wrinkle more easily. It is recommended to glue the finished ball with a napkin.
Instead of a ball, you can use a blank in the form of a heart, letters or numbers. You can make them from improvised materials: thick cardboard or papier-mâché.
Do-it-yourself topiary for beginners from napkins is done on the trunk or without it. As a trunk, you can use a strong twig, thick wire, a plastic stick, even an ordinary pencil. It can be wrapped with satin ribbons, lace, twine or coated with polymer clay, depending on the ideas and wishes. You can fix the finished flower ball in a pot. You can do without a trunk, and without dishes, hanging the topiary on a loop from a ribbon.
Capacity for a small tree is also needed in a small size. You can take a flower pot and decorate it as desired. Small pots are available for sale that are suitable for the job. Other containers can also be used, such as beautiful tea cups, a teapot, or an original sugar bowl. It all depends on the master’s fantasy flight.
Flowers from napkins
To make topiary from napkins, you need to prepare flowers. Their number depends on the size of the base and on the volume of flowers. So, on a ball with a diameter of 8 cm, at least 40 colors must be made. There are many options for making buds from napkins. Here are the simplest ones.
In the manufacturing options of the buds described below, conventional wipes are used. If you make it from serving napkins, then they need to cut off the tight edge, otherwise it will spoil the appearance of the finished product.
Bulk Carnations
Fold the usual paper towel in half and half in half. Get a little box. It is necessary to fasten it in the center with a stapler, making the fastenings crosswise. After that, cut off the edges of the square in the form of a circle. You need to cut a minimum of napkins. The edges of the circle can be tinted with a felt-tip pen or marker, suitable in color to give contrast. Carefully hook the upper layer of napkins with your fingers and lift it up, lock it. Next, lift each subsequent layer separately. This will create a voluminous flower resembling a carnation.
You can take wipes in three shades of the same color. Cut the squares of the desired size and fold a stack of napkins, moving from a more saturated color to a light one. Each shade take two leaves. Then everything is done in the same way. This approach gives vividness to the flower, creating smooth color transitions.
Dandelions
You can make dandelions using the same technique. Fold a napkin with a square and fix the center with a stapler. After cutting the circle, it is necessary to make notches along the edge at a distance of 2-3 mm from each other and to a depth of about 2 mm. Further, all actions will be similar to the manufacture of the previous flower. This technique allows you to make flowers not only voluminous, but also fluffy, give them vivacity. Yellow dandelions look very natural, although other colors are not excluded.
Roses
You can make a garden queen a rose from napkins in many ways. The simplest of them is given below. Cut the napkin in half to make a rectangle. Spread a half on the table, wide edge towards you. Using a long knitting needle or other similar stick, twist the roller, not reaching the end of 2 cm. Carefully pick up the roller from both ends and remove the needle. Holding the untwisted edge, roll the napkin around the axis, forming a rosette. Put glue on the bottom edge to fix the flower.
You can make roses by cutting out individual squares from paper and twisting the upper edges of each piece, giving them the shape of a petal. Twist one petal, giving the desired shape of the bud. This process is more complicated than the previous one, but the flower turns out like a real one.
Place all flower blanks for the topiary from napkins in a wide box so that they do not deform.
Fluffy trees
To make the topiary of napkins, a step-by-step guide for the manufacture of which is given in this article, original, it is not at all necessary to make flowers. You can cut the napkin into equal squares with a side of 3-4 cm. Apply PVA glue to a small area of the base ball. Take one small square, put an unsharpened pencil in its center and raise the edges. Attach the center to the area covered with glue. Glue the next box in the immediate vicinity of the previous one at a distance of 2-3 mm. Thus, the entire surface of the workpiece is covered. The topiary is fluffy and tender. In this way, you can create original patterns on the crown of the tree using different colors of napkins.
Wood assembly
When all the elements of the tree are ready, you can start assembling. First you need to connect the ball-base with the barrel. If this is done after gluing the flowers, then you can mash the composition. Insert the decorated stick into the ball and fix with glue. If a hanging arrangement is made, then it is necessary to fix the ribbon or eyelet.
Flowers adhere one at a time, starting from the top edge. Glue is applied to the base of the bud, and the workpiece is fixed on the base. Elements are glued close to each other so that there are no gaps.
You can cut out leaflets from green paper and decorate the crown with them. Or use other decorative elements: beads, sequins, ladybugs or butterflies, bows and much more.
In a separate container, dilute gypsum or alabaster to the density of sour cream. Gently pour the solution into the pot. In the center, install a decorated topiary and fix it so that it is standing level. Leave to solidify. Then you can lay out the top layer with decorative pebbles, shells, glass balls, sisal or other materials.
A do-it-yourself topiary of napkins, the step-by-step process of creating which is described, will not be difficult even for beginners Pupils can handle simple forms.
Care
Topiary from napkins - the subject is quite fragile and delicate. A place in the interior for him needs to be chosen so that direct sunlight does not fall on the tree, from which delicate colors will burn out. In addition, they are afraid of moisture, from which they can be deformed.
To remove dust, you can periodically blow the topiary with a non-hot jet from the hair dryer at low speed. Subject to these simple rules, the topiary of napkins will please more than one year. Moreover, their manufacture is not a laborious and financially expensive process, and you can create a new masterpiece at any time.
A napkin topiary for beginners is an ideal needlework option. It gives room for imagination, because there are a lot of manufacturing options. As a basis, you can take not only the ball. It can be a heart cut out of cardboard, or numbers and letters that can decorate a wedding hall or a birthday room.
Topiary of napkins, photos of which can be of help in creating a new original decoration for the interior. An artificial tree can be a great gift for any occasion. This is an original and stylish decoration for the interior.