Tiny Tart Tin Topiary Tree

I know one thing for sure. No matter how far in advance I post Christmas creations, I will always have new ideas to the very last second. Last year, I put together the Tiny Tart Tin Tree just a few days before Christmas. I hadn’t planned to create with the tins again this year, but a recent acquisition had other plans.

I present to you the Tiny Tin Tart Topiary Tree!

I brought home this fabulous pyramid shaped topiary form, and I knew it had so many possibilities. It sat and sat, waiting for me to choose which direction to go in.

All it took was adding one tart tin, and I couldn’t stop. Unlike last year’s tree, I flipped the tins to show the outsides instead. It would seem that showing the inside is the most common practice for crafting, but I found the outside to work well for this form.

I could have really jazzed up the finial with a star or something, but instead I chose to keep it humble and simplistic with a few mercury glass beads strung on some wire.

I did pretty much the same thing as my other tart tree. I kept everything quick and temporary by adding the tiny earth magnets to the inside of the tins. This time, I added ornament hooks to the magnets, twisting the hook to stick out enough to hang on the mesh topiary form.

I had some small mercury balls, but these were the kind that are usually on foil-wrapped stems for floral accents. I wanted an easy, attractive way to keep the balls on the mesh without wiring them to it, so I hot-glued silver pipe cleaner around the ball neck. I also darkened the pipe cleaner with brown alcohol ink to look at place with the aged metal. Spiraled around the neck allowed me to twist the ball gently into a mesh hole, and the thickness of the pipe cleaner holds it in place.

To hold the topiary form in the urn, I secured a piece of Styrofoam inside with some putty. I stuck the topiary stem all the way down, then scooped in white beans to cover the Styrofoam. I’ve played with navy beans before, because I love that they’re winter white, and I’m a sucker for texture. Being a kitchen tree, the beans seemed a no-brainer, but other fillers would work too. Coffee beans, perhaps?

The other fun and instant accent was with my star-shaped baking tin.

I added a glass flower frog, and secured small, Swedish style candles in some of the holes. They are the perfect size for the holes, but it is important to use candle stick-ums to keep them from toppling over. I also kept the look simple, not covering anything with filler, to show off the tin interior.

These are just a couple quick and easy ideas for last-minute decorating. I’m sure there’s more where those came from, but we’ll see if I feel the need to share…..:)