Topiary made of Christmas tree cones. How to make a beautiful topiary from pine cones - a master class for beginners. Autumn craft: topiary made of pine cones and chestnuts

In ancient times, topiary was the name given to gardens with plants whose crowns had bizarre shapes. Such plantings were especially popular in Europe in the 16th - 18th centuries. At this time, gardeners often trimmed the crowns of trees and plants in the shape of people, birds and animals. Today, topiary is a decorative artificial tree that will fit perfectly into any interior. It can be made from any available materials, for example, cones.

Topiary from pine cones: master class

You will need:

• Cones;
• Cardboard or foam;
• Glue gun;
• Brown spray paint;
• Decorative pot;
• Decorative elements.

Instructions:

1. First of all, make the basis for the future topiary. It is cone-shaped and formed from foam or cardboard. Simply roll the material into a cone shape. Then, paint it brown. Now prepare the cones: cut off a few scales at the base of each, making it flatter. This is necessary so that the cones lie on a flat surface.
2. Starting at the top of the base, glue the pine cones, minimizing the space between them. They don’t have to be the same size: asymmetry will look more relaxed and interesting.
3. Now all you have to do is install the topiary in a decorative pot with the flat side and the tip up. You can decorate the finished topiary as you wish, using ribbons, bows, beads, and toy figurines of birds and animals.
4. Having mastered this simple method of creating a cone-shaped topiary, you can easily create round, square, oval and shaped versions of the craft.

Topiary from cones: how to make it yourself?

You will need:

• Cones;
• Decorative coniferous branches;
• Branch for the trunk;
• Newspaper or paper;
• Masking tape;
• Brown paint;
• Glue gun;
• PVA glue;
• Scissors or knife;
• Leg-split;
• Sackcloth;
• Flower pot;
• Gypsum;
• Pebbles;
• Decorative elements.

Instructions:

1. Start creating your topiary from the crown: simply crumple up leaves of paper or newspaper to form a ball. Cover the finished ball with masking tape and paint it with brown paint.
2. Wait for the paint to dry, then use scissors to make a hole, pour glue into it and insert a thick stick.
3. Wrap the trunk with twine, gluing it at the beginning and end of the trunk. Starting from the top of the head, attach the pine cones to the base as tightly as possible to each other. Glue twigs into the gaps between the cones.
4. Wrap the pot in burlap and secure it with a glue gun. Pour plaster into the pot, insert the stem and wait until it dries.
5. When the plaster has completely hardened, pour glue into it and attach the pebbles. Decorate the topiary pot with twine and decorative elements. If you wish, you can add interesting elements to the crown itself: beads, sparkles, bows, flowers, etc.

New Year's topiary from pine cones: making

You will need:

• Cones;
• Pine or spruce branches;
• Newspapers;
• Threads;
• Brown or green paint;
• Small Christmas tree decorations;
• Tinsel;
• Decorative pot;
• Wooden, plastic or cardboard trunk;
• Gypsum;
• Scissors;
• Glue gun;
• Twine and burlap;
• Satin ribbon;
• Beads;
• PVA glue.
• Cotton wool;
• Artificial snow and sparkles.

Instructions:

1. Roll a ball out of newspapers, wrap it with thread, and paint it with brown or green paint. Make a hole in the ball, pour a little glue and insert the barrel. You can wrap it with ribbons or twine, decorate it with tinsel and beads. Cover the crown of the future topiary with cones. Pour plaster into the pot, place the topiary in the center of the container and wait a few minutes for the plaster to dry.
2. Wrap the pot in burlap and secure with twine or satin ribbon. Decorate the crown of the topiary with Christmas balls and pine branches. You can additionally decorate with a garland of beads. Decorate the pot with tinsel, and beautifully spread cotton wool over the plaster. Spray the finished topiary with artificial glitter and snow.

How to make an elegant topiary from pine cones?

You will need:

• Cones;
• Newspaper;
• Twine or thread;
• Gypsum;
• Flower pot;
• Dry branch;
• Thermal gun;
• Wrapping paper or candy wrappers;
• Cotton wool;
• PVA glue;
• Tinsel;
• Toy gifts;

Instructions:

1. Crumple the newsprint into a tight, even ball and wrap it with thread. Pour gypsum into the pot, place the trunk exactly in the middle and wait until the solution hardens.
2. Attach a newspaper ball to the table. Now cover the crown of the topiary with cones as close to each other as possible.
3. Cut the wrapping paper into small squares. Roll them into bags, filling them with cotton wool. Candy wrappers are ideal instead of paper. Glue the resulting balls to the cones.
4. Place moss on top of the plaster and decorate with tinsel. Add some wrapper balloons and toy gifts. You can also plant toy figurines of animals under the topiary, put Santa Claus and the Snow Maiden.

Topiary made of pine cones is a wonderful decoration for your interior and a dust collector. It is a ball decorated with various elements (in some cases they make triangular, square and figured topiaries), attached to the trunk. It can be of different sizes and can be used to decorate a home, office, cottage, or other premises. To create a topiary you will not need a lot of effort, time and materials. Even a child can make such a craft. Be sure that by making topiary yourself, you will bring prosperity, happiness and good luck into your home!

What do you associate with crafts made from pine cones? For the older generation, most likely, it will be school times and the insanely popular “cone men”. However, cones can be used not only for wonderful people who have already become something ordinary. For example, you can make a topiary (or as it is otherwise called, “the tree of happiness”). It is perfect for those who do not like to care for house plants, and they, in turn, pay in return. Moreover, topiary is an excellent craft for a school competition or just a good way to have fun, spend time together and usefully. Just look what beautiful trees you can make with a little imagination and patience!

And now we present to you a master class on making topiary from cones and acorns, which can serve as both a decor for your apartment and an unusual gift for friends and family!

We will make such a wonderful and even, one might say, fluffy tree.

Materials for work

1. Pine cones;

2. Thermal gun;

3. Hot melt adhesive;

4. Newspaper (you can use plastic balls, but making a hole in them for the topiary trunk is very inconvenient);

5. Plaster (or alabaster);

7. Pine branch;

8. Paint;

Topiary from pine cones: master class

1. Form a ball from newsprint.

2. Wrap the ball with thread so that it retains its ball shape.

3. Apply glue to the pine cone.

4. Glue the cones onto the ball as close to each other as possible.

5. Form the pine cones into a round shape.

6. Let's sharpen the pine branch.

7. Let's make a hole in the bottom of the ball.

8. Insert a pine branch into the hole and fix it with glue.

9. Paint the ball with silver paint.

10. We spread plaster (or alabaster) in the flowerpot, leaving 4 cm from the edge of the flowerpot. The consistency should resemble sour cream.

11. Insert the barrel with the crown into the solution and fix it until it dries completely.

12. Decorate the base of the topiary with small cones, as in the photo.

13. Final chord - coat the product with varnish.

Everyone associates crafts made from pine cones with different things. For the older generation, they are associated with school years and pine cone men. Modern needlewomen will prefer to make a tree of happiness - a topiary from cones or acorns. Such a souvenir will fit into any interior: it is not as capricious as a house plant. In addition, topiary made from pine cones is a wonderful children's craft, both for a labor lesson for school, and as a gift for relatives. You just need a little patience and imagination.

Topiary is a small composition, an artificial tree made from available artificial or natural materials. The craft can be made from coffee beans, walnut halves, spruce or pine cones, pasta and acorns. Even in ancient times, there were traditions in garden design: giving shrubs and trees various decorative forms.

One of the seven wonders of the world was the Gardens of Babylon, where one could find trees and bushes of a wide variety of bizarre shapes: the result of the painstaking work of the courtyard gardeners. Topiary was the name given to just such plants, with artificially created shapes and outlines. Garden art was especially popular in the palaces of Japan and the French Versailles.

Nowadays, topiary means a small indoor composition made from various available parts. Its height does not exceed half a meter. The craft is made in different forms: in the form of a cone, a heart, a ball, one or several figures. A tree can have one trunk and one crown, or it can branch into several branches and have two or three crowns. Artificial wood, according to popular belief, brings prosperity, comfort and warmth to the home. In the classic version, the craft consists of five main parts:

As a basis for topiary, you can make papier-mâché blanks and a foam log.

It is allowed to use both artificial and natural materials in decoration: cones, nuts, acorns, coffee beans, nut shells, pasta, beads, sisal, artificial flowers, ribbons, organza, beads, various twigs and sticks, foam figures.

Alternatively, the tree trunk can be made from thick, strong wire or bent branches. Creating a topiary allows for the combination of different materials.

Source materials

Cedar, pine, spruce - any cones of coniferous trees are suitable for crafts of this kind. They are easy to find in large quantities, even in urban areas. You can collect the cones yourself or purchase them at handicraft stores. Sisal, beads, seed beads, organza, foam and other artificial elements are sold in floral supply stores or in craft departments.

Step-by-step master classes

Even a small child can create a topiary from pine cones with his own hands. The steps are simple, the materials are not hazardous to health, and the result is a beautiful and original gift. Topiaries made from pine and thuja cones and acorns are unusual.

Classic topiary

The simplest topiary master class from pine cones: depending on the additional decoration, you can make an autumn or winter version of the craft. The details you need to take are:

The first step is to sort the cones and choose the same diameter from the available ones. If a foam ball is used, it should be carefully secured to the trunk of the future topiary. You can make a papier-mâché ball out of newspapers. To do this, newsprint is shredded and filled with hot water and laundry soap. The paper should take several hours to swell. Then you need to form a ball out of it and dry it thoroughly.

Warm up the glue gun, drop some glue onto the pine cone, and immediately press it onto the ball. Glue the cones to the base, leaving no gaps. You should not drip a lot of glue onto the cones - the excess will look sloppy, flowing out from under the crown elements. Insert the barrel into the ball covered with cones. Also drip the joint with glue. Now the finished tree can be fixed in a pot using a gypsum solution. For this, dry gypsum should be diluted with warm water (room temperature) to the consistency of liquid sour cream.

Place the tree in the pot and fill it with solution, not reaching the edge by about 5 millimeters. The advantage of gypsum is that it hardens quickly. In this case, the craft may become hot - there is no need to be afraid, this is a chemical property of gypsum. It is recommended to cover the craft with silver or gold spray paint.

For a winter version of snow-covered cones, they can be coated with glue and sprinkled with semolina and glitter on top. The pine cone craft is ready, the author can do the rest of the decoration at his own discretion.

From thuja branches and fir cones

It will turn out very beautiful and elegant if the spruce topiary is supplemented with small branches of thuja or young spruce branches. For this craft you need to take:

The cones must be decorated by painting before gluing them onto the base. To do this, cut a small convenient piece from the sponge, dip it in paint and paint the cones, imitating snow. It is not necessary to take acrylic paint; you can use children's gouache or even toothpaste. Additionally, the topiary elements are fixed with gold thread for more reliable fastening.

The thuja branch should be disassembled into small branches. Using a knitting needle, fill the gaps between the cones with thuja blanks. Once again, secure the parts with gold thread, randomly wrapping the workpiece several times. Glue the beads to the cones using a glue gun, distributing them evenly over the entire area of ​​the craft. For the trunk of the topiary, put 6-7 skewers together and wrap them with thick white thread, leaving five centimeters untouched on the side of the sharp edge.

Make a hole in the ball with a pen or knife, coat the sharp ends of the skewers with hot glue and insert them into the prepared topiary crown. Leave until completely dry. While the workpiece dries, prepare the base flowerpot. To do this, make a cement mortar - dilute cement with water or use a ready-made mixture. The use of gypsum is not excluded. Insert the tree into the pot, fill it with diluted cement, fix it in a straight position and leave it to harden.

The frozen craft can be decorated with sisal on top, imitating green grass. Decorate the topiary with ribbons in the color of beads or sisal. If you add more sparkles, a few small Christmas balls or shiny rain, you will get a New Year's version of the craft.

Acorn craft

In autumn, forests and plantings are strewn with acorns. They can also be used to make a worthy piece of environmental decor. For it you will need:

Any container of suitable size, even a yogurt glass or a tin can, will be suitable as a pot for the future topiary. You can immediately wrap it with sisal or twine, or do this when the entire composition has already been assembled.

Pour the plaster into a container and dilute with water at room temperature until it reaches the consistency of sour cream. This material dries quickly, so immediately after diluting the gypsum mixture, you need to insert the future topiary trunk there. The mixture will take a few minutes to dry.

For a papier-mâché crown, you should inflate the balloon and adjust its size based on the size of the craft. Then prepare the adhesive composition for papier-mâché. To do this, soak toilet paper in water for three hours (it’s better to do this in advance so as not to waste time). After three hours, squeeze out the paper and add two tablespoons of PVA glue or paste. Stir the paper mixture until smooth. If you have a construction mixer, you can use it.

The result should be a mixture close in thickness to gypsum mortar. Apply the finished papier-mâché material to the inflated balloon. First, one half of the ball is coated. After drying, it must be removed. Then the other half is coated and also removed after drying. Well-dried halves of the future crown must be glued together with a glue gun. Make a hole in the crown for the trunk.

If you don’t want to mess around with papier-mâché, you can cut the crown from a piece of foam plastic or buy a ready-made piece. Choose any container for topiary - from a standard flowerpot to a glass jar. It is important to consider that when working with glass, it is better to use hot glue from a glue gun. Other glue will not be able to securely attach the elements to the glass surface.

Connect the crown and trunk using a few drops of hot glue and leave to cool. Meanwhile, prepare the acorns. Separate the caps from the nuts, making sure that there are no deformed or cracked elements. Coat the crown well with PVA glue and glue randomly with scraps of sisal. Then use a glue gun to cover the crown with acorns, and glue the caps with the convex side outward into the gaps between them. The gypsum base can also be decorated with sisal; two or three acorns can be attached.

It is worth paying special attention to the attachment of acorns. In order for them to adhere well to the surface, you need to drop a drop of glue, press them down and hold them in this position for 5-7 seconds. PVA glue is not suitable for such crafts - only hot glue. It is recommended to slightly file down the smooth surface of the acorns before gluing. In the future, this will ensure good adhesion to the crown, and the craft will last longer.

After all the details and elements have been applied to the topiary, it should be left, preferably for a day, for the glue to completely dry and all the details of the composition to adhere. When the craft is dry, apply colorless varnish to the acorns and leave to dry for three hours. Additionally, you can decorate the topiary with ribbons, beads, beads, insect figures, twigs or floral sparkles. For a special shine, needlewomen recommend covering the topiary with bronze paint. This should be done before applying varnish.

It is not necessary to give the crown the shape of a ball. Topiary will also look original and unusual in the shape of a heart, cloud, cone or some kind of fruit. The main thing is to let your imagination manifest itself in full force.

Another New Year's master class on making topiary. Who should put up a topiary for the holiday?

Topiary - the tree of happiness, will perfectly replace the New Year tree in a small apartment! It won't take up much space and will create a festive mood! You can place a small garland on or near the topiary. Topiary is suitable for those who want to attract happiness and good luck to their home in the New Year!

I bring to your attention a master class on making topiary for the New Year holidays.

Here are the materials we will need to make topiary:

• a foam ball (in this case, 9 cm in diameter);
• corilus (this is a wavy branch) about 30 cm long;
• sisal fiber dark green;
• natural buds;
• Christmas decorations;
• decorative tangerines;
• cinnamon sticks;
• artificial spruce branches.

And among the tools - a glue gun and rods for it:

Flowerpot. My flowerpot is decorated using decoupage technique, you can take any other that suits the style.

And gypsum plaster:

So let's get started.

1. We need to insert our corilus branch into a foam ball. To do this, use a knife to dig out a small hole with a diameter suitable for our branch and a depth of approximately 2-3 cm.

We heat up the glue gun, fill the hole with hot glue and insert our twig into the hole with glue. We wait for the glue to cool, and at this time we hold our structure so that everything sticks evenly. This is what you should get:

2. We begin to paste over our ball, glue the balls first, at approximately the same distance from each other, I got 6 balls:

3. Then we glue our cones, also at approximately the same distance from each other (the cones should be well dried, if you collected them yourself, if they are damp, they will not stick):

4. The next step is to glue the decorative spruce branches:

5. Then we need to roll the following balls from sisal fiber:

To do this, pinch off a bunch of sisal and roll it into a ball in your palms. You need quite a few of these balls; to be honest, I didn’t count how many, but I put them in a large cup, and I got a full cup.

6. Then we fill the empty spaces on our future topiary with these balls. We also glue them with a glue gun. This is what we should get:

7. Our next step will be decoration - gluing tangerines, cinnamon sticks and other decorative elements suitable for the New Year theme:

Well, it looks like we’re done with the ball.

8. Then we need to “plant” our tree in a pot. To do this, put the tree in a pot and cover it with crumpled newspaper so that it becomes slightly stable, but there is still room for plaster:

9. In an unnecessary container that you don’t mind spoiling (mine is a mayonnaise concrete container), mix the solution, pour water a little at a time into the dry plaster and knead until the consistency of thick sour cream.

10. Carefully place the solution in the flowerpot with the tree. At the same time, use a stick to tamp down the newspaper and crush it inside the flowerpot. Due to the fact that there will be newspaper inside, the weight of the topiary will not be too large.

Where we get stained with solution, we wipe it off immediately so that it doesn’t dry out. And we put it in a corner for support and stability. We look at it from all sides and correct it so that our tree is even. And leave it like that until the solution hardens, usually for two hours.

When the solution has completely hardened, you can decorate the flower pots.

11. First we will cover the solution with sisal. To do this, take a larger bunch of sisal and roll it into a “sausage” with your hands.

Then we evenly coat the surface of the frozen mortar with glue, using this glue because the glue gun does not stick to the cement surface.

12. And glue our sisal sausage in a circle, starting with the winding of the barrel and then increasing the radius of the winding to cover the entire surface. Press with your fingers to make it stick better.

13. After the sisal has slightly stuck, you can proceed to the final step - decorating the flower pots:

And this is what we should end up with!

I hope my master class will be useful to someone, I wish you all creative success and inspiration!

Topiary made from pine cones is a stylish and fashionable decoration that can often be seen in the windows of souvenir shops. Looking at this small work of art, it is difficult to imagine that ordinary people like you had a hand in its creation. The history of the famous round shape of the tree crown goes back to the era when the Gardens of Babylon were created, because they are known for the fact that almost all the trees and shrubs growing there had bizarre rounded shapes. Later, this technology was adopted by specialists from Japan and Versailles.

What does the decor consist of?

The European tree of happiness, as it is now popularly called, is today made from various materials. You can find them while walking in the forest; the blanks are stored in your kitchen cabinets and craft baskets. They use everything: large coffee beans, nuts, acorns, cinnamon sticks, pasta, chestnuts and chocolates. As for the shape, in most cases it is a regular ball, but sometimes it turns into a cone, a heart, or even a number reminiscent of some memorable date.

The scheme for creating jewelry is simple and understandable; even a primary school student can master it. Cones are a very interesting and original raw material that can easily be transformed and decorated with beads, ribbons and other elements. The trunk holding the crown can be made from a fragment of a thick branch, tubes or thick wire.

Advice! According to popular belief, a decorative topiary, which is an artificial low tree, can attract warmth, comfort and well-being into a home.

In the classical interpretation, this decoration consists of the following parts:

• Ball. This is a kind of basis for securing decorative elements that will represent the crown of the plant. It can be made from old newspapers, polyurethane foam, polystyrene foam or a simple balloon. Almost all craft stores sell plastic blanks.

• Trunk. Here, too, you should not be limited in the choice of raw materials. Cocktail straws, pencils, twigs or wire will be used.

• Pot. Naturally, a tree must grow from the ground. Of course, the filling can be very diverse, in fact, like the container itself. Plastic cups, flowerpots, old flowerpots, tin cans, children's shoes and boots - everything that you wanted to throw out, but couldn't decide to do so, will come in handy now.

Advice!The topiary you create will need to be carefully looked after. Due to the large number of small parts, it will accumulate dust. For the same reason, the product should not be given to children so that they can use it in their games. Place the decoration on a shelf away from heating devices and direct sunlight, otherwise the tree will dry out and lose the brightness and richness of its colors. Never get it wet, otherwise the adhesive will deteriorate and will no longer hold the elements. And one more thing: to remove dust, use a small hair dye brush and a hair dryer, naturally with cold air supply.

At the preparation stage

On the eve of important and significant holidays, especially the New Year holidays and Christmas, you can make a topiary that will successfully replace the traditional Christmas tree. To create such a masterpiece, not only pine cones, but balls, icicles and other Christmas tree decorations, as well as fragrant freshly picked twigs with green needles are suitable.

So, before starting work, lay out on the table everything that may be useful to you in the process:

• Cones. They are collected in the fall during leaf fall. They survive long-term storage well and do not crumble for a long period.

• Thermal gun with silicone glue sticks and polystyrene foam. From it you will build a ball.

• Plaster or alabaster (remember that the latter takes longer to dry, which means you will have to take a significant break from work), old newspapers.
• Ribbons, beads, buttons, artificial flowers, moss and any other decor you like.

• Ceramic pot and stick for the trunk.
• Threads and a can of spray paint.

We have already decided that pine cones will be the main raw material, so you should carefully select the material. Try to ensure that the products have the same shape and length. If you just picked them while walking in the woods, the material must be thoroughly washed and then thoroughly dried in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 350 degrees. Check that there are no insects in them.

In fact, foam is not the best material for a ball. It is better to use old newspapers or papier-mâché. According to the rules of the last method, shred the paper and fill it with hot water, adding shavings of laundry soap. After the liquid has cooled and the raw material has swollen, give it the desired shape and dry the workpiece.

And now a few words about filling the pot. We all understand that in order for the structure to stand for a long time without deformation or movement, the contents of the pot or glass must be of high quality and strong. Take any building mixture, plaster, alabaster, putty or cement-sand mortar. Floral foam or polystyrene foam is excellent for such purposes.

Advice! Alabaster is the best option. Over time, it does not crack and does not lose its qualities. Dilute the mixture to the consistency of thick sour cream, pour in, and immediately install the barrel. The rest and drying period is approximately 24 hours.

Let's move on to creation

Finally, your workpiece is ready, and now all that remains is to decorate the European tree. If you have already made a trunk, start decorating it. Wrap with ribbons, stick on beads or metal rivets. A ball made of paper or foam plastic must be painted brown so that the gaps between the cones are not noticeable. Warm up the glue gun and, applying a drop of the composition to each decoration, carefully attach it to the base of the tree to gradually create its crown. This needs to be done quickly so that the glue does not have time to cool and lose the properties we need. If the size of the cones is different, tackle the largest ones first, and then work on the small ones at the end. In the case where the material has the same parameters, create a grid of decorations based on the honeycomb principle. Now start processing the contents of the pot. Pour small elements there, cover the surface with moss to create the impression that the topiary is growing from the ground.

Advice!Do everything carefully, make sure that there are no visible seams, glue smudges, gaps or other defects. All this is easy to hide; you just need to skillfully use fabric ribbons and beads. If you don't have anything elegant and beautiful at hand, make a trip to the nearest craft store. Now there is such an incredible assortment that you will certainly find everything you need for the tree of happiness.

A few more bright ideas to note

Autumn is a wonderful time when nature prepares for winter sleep and generously gifts us with various fruits. At this time, you can collect a lot of different materials to create a tree of happiness. In addition to cones, collect acorns, rowan branches with bunches of berries, and make a herbarium of flowers and plants. Combinations of cones, walnuts, and other elements on the surface of which bronze paint is applied look very original.

Before the New Year holidays, you can make an elegant and original topiary from Christmas tree decorations and shaggy branches. Be sure to add here the so-called rain, tinsel, and beads of different colors. Such a masterpiece can serve as a gift to friends and family, as well as decorate a holiday table. Several trees can be placed in the rooms, and then the house will be filled with an incredible Christmas atmosphere, in which your household will certainly become at least a little happier and believe in miracles.

Topiary made from pine cones is an original decoration that is popular in almost all European countries. Such trees of happiness are sold in shops and souvenir shops in France, Great Britain and, of course, our country. For several years now, they have invariably been considered bestsellers and universal gifts for all occasions.

But why spend money if you can build such a masterpiece with your own hands. Surely, in every apartment there is a glass glass, a jar or a plastic bottle, and it’s easy to pick up pine cones during a trip out of town or to the country. Do not follow strict rules, the main thing here is a flight of imagination and the makings of a decorator. If there are any, feel free to get down to business. You can’t even imagine how easily you will create your first handmade item. In addition, this is a very exciting activity that allows you to escape from the everyday hustle and bustle. Involve your children in the work, and then the craft will become a cherished memory of the time you spent with your kids. And they will try and choose the best materials! Having gained experience, start collecting trees of happiness for your family and friends and they will definitely respond to you with kindness and gratitude.