Halloween Day 7 - Spooky Topiary

Well, it has finally arrived...Day 7!  And therefore, the last project in my Halloweeny blitz!!! 

I'm pretty thrilled with how this one turned out.  Especially when you consider I missed counted the days when I started this whole thing, so I only had 6 projects planned out!  Yikes! 

So, last night when I got home around 6:30, I started looking at what I had on hand.

Enter this lovely, purchased a few weeks ago at Goodwill as a daily half priced item, so I paid $1.50.

(Warning...this post is picture heavy.)

It almost broke my heart to sand it down and paint it black because if it was truly hand painted, I know someone put their own talent and hard work into painting it...but it was old and dated and needed a new lease on life.

So, that's what I did.  And then I Modge Podged with scrapbook paper (about $1.50 worth...with plenty left over for another project), sanded all the edges and inked the edges with black ink and of course rubbed it in with my fingers. :)

As I sat there pondering what I was going to do with it next, this hole was saying, "use me...not the big one on the other side for a candle...that's too predictable." 

I couldn't let this little hole down...and that's when it hit me...topiary!!

I gathered some leftover dowel pieces and some skewers I had and put a styrofoam ball on top.

Now what?  What was I going to use to make the topiary?  I thought about spiders, but that didn't work.  Once again, I was at a loss.  Since Doodle was still at her dad's I ran to Meijer (it's a store here in the Midwest, kind of like a bigger, bit nicer, more expensive Wal-Mart).  Nothing stood out to me.  Shoot!!

Well, I had to go to Menards (a large hardware store we have here in Indy) because I needed to pick up a hard to find lightbulb for my cubicle at work.  As I was walking around...I found my solution....and for FREE!  Sort of.  Menards offers alot of rebates.  So, my solution was $1.50 with a $1.50 rebate! :)

What would make the perfect Halloweeny topiary?

That's right....shelf liner!

So, having done something like this before (which I have not had time to show you yet), I just used the same technique.

I cut my shelf liner into 2x2 squares.  Pulled the sides up around a small piece of dowel, hot glued the end and stuck onto the styrofoam ball (which I painted black so white wouldn't be showing through any gaps).  Just keep repeating until the whole ball is full.  Shove each piece in pretty tight so you get a good full look to your topiary.

Once I filled the whole ball, I wrapped a scrap piece of cream fabric around the dowels.  I rubbed some of my Jim Holtz Distressing Ink in Walnut over the ribbon to age it up some. 

Then I hot glued the dowel into the little hole and added a couple spiders for fun!  I also ran some of the spider web stuff you use outside over the ball to give it some 'eeriness'. 

Here's what I ended up with!!

Be sure to come back tomorrow...that's when I'll show you my living room all decked out for a fun Halloweeny. :) 

Until tomorrow...