hello in this episode we're going to learn how to make a topiary such as this which is perfect for an entryway on the outside of your door or for your or any other corner where you might want some height and just some fall decor this is very easy to do and you I'm going to show you how you can switch it out so that it's not permanent for that season you can use from season to season so now one of the first things we're going to start with we have our container and we have our topiary now I already have this foamed in for doing on your own at the house just choose the container that you want that fits your topiary frame you can use either the floral foam blocks and fill your container with it or you can use the triple expanding spray foam that you get in the can at any of the big package stores or any craft store if you're using the triple expanding foam it can take one to two cans to fill a container of this size just depending on the weather conditions as to me how much it's going to expand if you do that have some Moss ready so once you spray your container and that foam starts expanding that you can immediately lay the phone or the moss on top of your phone and press down and keep it somewhat corralled into your container and not get them all over your hands now once you've got your frame stuck down into your phone then you're ready to start decorating one of the least expensive for the money things that you have this great fun so get you an inexpensive grapevine wreath and unwind it now this gives you great textures I said it's one of the least expensive things that you can get to give you bang for your buck and locate the end and start at the top and you're going to tie this off just in random places as you spiral it around now today I'm going to use what's called a barked wire there's bark literally wrapped around this wire and I'm going to use it just because it ties in you can use regular florist wire you can use a must wire such as this just an anything that's going to blend in in this case you don't want to use chenille stems because those will show up so we're just going to cut a length off just a few inches long and we're going to start with this end as I said we're going to start up top and we're just going to tie around the finial now if one breaks like the just did here don't worry about that at all because that's just going to tie right in now I'm going to loop this around and I'm going to tie that tightly and I'll leave those in sticking out there okay and then just start working with your grapevine at that point and just start wrapping now this in general is easier to you to do on the floor of course unless you're a giant and can easily reach up let's get this going around here well this whole thing is spiraling okay now let's take our first tie right here where this one's broken and that's going to hold that end down I'm going to cut off another few inches all this is doing is starting you're spiraling wine and again giving you texture there isn't another end we're going to tie that right in with this one and we're going to keep working our spiral around and as new ends come up also add those in okay let's pull that on around bring this down and now that i'm down at the bottom i'm just going to snap this and then i can lay the rest of that aside now if you want your grapevine thicker you can go and do another row it's just literally up to you the technique is all the same I'm going to tie off the bottom and I'll cut this short end here I'm going to tie that and this one other edge that's sticking out I'm going to pull that in and tie it okay next is mesh I have a role of the 10 inch or inch mesh going you can use any color you like of course depending on the season also depending on your decor and with that i'm going to start spiraling it around in a different location from my great bond because i want layers i don't want one over the other and one thing to be hiding my previous work so i'm just going to tie that in and I've left longer tails on this lower tie so that we can attach a bow in a moment okay now then i'm going to start wrapping and let's see we'll keep this first time every low just pinch in gather in so that you get some nice body going with your ribbon and secure that and keep moving up the piece let that puff out around your grapevine and just spiral on up anywhere that you think looks right we'll do one more about right here and then I'll move up to the top now once you reach the top and we're going to cut pretty good length here because pull this through and bring it on up and we're going to form one loop at the top just to give you a little more going on and finish off the piece and then we're going to tie that as well and that has your mesh layer going now you could also use the 21 inch ribbon as opposed to the 10 inch that I've used it will just give you more fullness if you want more coverage over your frame maybe if you've got a plane frame so there's no design work going on you might want more coverage otherwise I would stick with the 10 inch now then next I'm using a burlap ribbon which has got varying fall colors woven in with it and I'm going to do the same thing first I'm going to trim that flat edge off so that my ribbon comes to a point and I'm going to use my previous ties and tie that with the mesh now of course i'm using a narrower ribbon here and that way as i bring the burlap along I've got the orange mess showing out on each side of it and so that just gives me that layered look it doesn't hide anything really but it does work to give me just that one more layer of interest just kind of let it loosely wind along and work with the mesh on living along ok and then once again I'm going to bring that through up make a loop n in and tie it off beside the other piece so now you can see as I turn the piece how you've got interest going on all sides now next would be the bow we have a video showing how to tie a bow but we'll just kind of review that process first off you're going to roll out and you're going to leave a tail the link that you might want hanging down remember the mash curls some so you can go a little more if you need to because it is going to curl up and you're just going to pinch all of this up in your hands do one half twist so that you keep that bow loop going and we're going to gather that in and grip it and turn our ribbon one half twist the reason I'm doing the one half twist with this is not because I've just got one good side of my mash because it's the same on both sides but because of the role of the ribbon itself the body helps keep my loops fully strong now you can stop off at two loops particularly if you're having trouble with this but only i would go ahead and do three and that's what i'm going to do here and I'm going to gather in and I'm going to cut now remember with mesh always just cut straight across don't do it on an angle because the mesh ends will Ravel out you want the least amount of edge showing for that now then at this point I can take one of the ties tie this off and go ahead and attach or as you get more and more used to it and building your bows you can stack in with the next color and continue on so that's what I'm going to show you here i'm still gripping this between my index finger and my thumb and i just work that into that bend of my hand do that half twist because of course in this case there is a backside of the burlap because of the seemed edges i'm going to do that half twist again gather into the my hand where I can hold it and do my final third loop gather in and then I'm ready to cut where's the burlap i am doing on an angle because i don't care if the ends of that fray now I've got my ties here already from the previous bit so all I'm going to do is hold this place it in to the center of those ties and pull those tight and twist them in then I'm ready to just fluff out my bow a bit till I get the result that I'm right now there is my bow fully attached now at this point I'm going to move around to the front of the table and we'll discuss putting the decor on now we're going to work off this and show you how to work your decor I haven't glued anything in here because of course fall is a short season and I want to reuse my topiary from season to season and switch it out so what I've done first off is I have a fall pick this one with a pumpkin so it gives me nice visual weight and I don't have to add anything else to it or glue anything in at this point so I've just shaped that out I've used two of them I took one in here and I took one into my thumb on this side and just insert it like so that way you know my pumpkin everything is showing up now I want a bit more volume going at the base so i have used these grass bushes and I just shaped those out of course everything is wired on the blooms of the grass itself so i fanned those out because i think about where i'm going to place and how they're going to be I go ahead and fan all over that out and use again the entire Bush no cutting and then insert into place wherever I want it to go into the phone now if you're using well it doesn't really matter what kind of phone you're using sometimes there are hard spots so one of the easy tricks to use before inserting in is merely to take your heavy scissors and jam the point in just give it a quarter twist and that opens up a space for you to insert your bush into without you having to push and shove and and all of that so I've got one bush here we've got two bushes of grass on this side and so that's got my bass cover now I need a little more interest going up through here because wherever you've got this time that's kind of narrow and uninteresting so I've mixed pine cones I've mixed pods and you can get the boxes of the vase filler you use the different orbs depending on what colors you want going on what interest you want to go and then take the rest of it and put it a bowl or using some of your other seasonal arrangements but I've glued those in place either using your hot glue gun or the glue pan now one trick here is to make sure when you're gluing only glue to your ribbon and your mesh not to your frame that way you can untwist the wire at the end of the season roll this up loosely place it in a box or bag and store it away until next year when you're ready to put it back on you already have these then marking where you tie it back onto your frame at so it makes it very simple to do you can leave the grapevine on from season to season no problem there and mix the rest of it in then after that whether you want it lit or not you can add the battery pack lights which are the small wire lights that we have also very easy to store and in the battery pack those of course you can just wrap an unwrap their very thin wires was just that glue bead on the wire itself forming the bulb and just spiral that down through the pace tuck your battery pack in among the bow and that gives you easy access to the on and off and these of course last you two or three weeks of constant burning before you have to switch the bulbs out again so even if you left it on all the time you know a couple of bulb changes is all it would take for your fall season and there you have it your completed topiary all ready to make your entryway or any other area in your home very holiday filled and classy you can get it all at 36