gift box topiaries

I have been pinning Christmas like crazy and found some cute gift box topiaries at BH&G and That Village House, so I thought I'd try my own.

{materials}:

• 2 urns or plant stands
• 3 pairs of boxes, small/medium/large (I got mine at the liquor store for free)
• 2 or 3 varieties of gift wrap
• wide ribbon for bows
• 2 pieces of rebar or dowel rods tall enough to run through your stack of boxes into your planter
• floral foam
• tape, glue gun

My urns are plastic, so I weighted them down with some large rocks before starting.  Next, I glued some craft foam in the center of each planter to hold the dowel rods more securely when everything is put together.

Before you begin wrapping, take out any cardboard inserts that are in your boxes, like those dividers they put in wine boxes.  (If you forget to take these out, you won't be able to put your dowel rod all the way through, and you'll have to unwrap and rewrap the packages.  Don't ask me how I know this.)  I wrapped each gift as neatly as possible trying to hide all seams.  I am truly the world's worst gift wrapper, so if mine topiaries turned out okay, I know yours can too.  Then I added the ribbon and the bows.

Here's the tricky part - you have to poke holes through the boxes and run the dowel rod through them to hold them in a stack.  To make the presents tilt, you need to make the holes off-center - I just kind of held it up the way I wanted it to tilt and imagined how my axis would run through it.  I had trouble getting mine to hold (even with LOTS of hot glue), so I also made some little foam wedges and wrapped them in coordinating paper to help balance the boxes.  I started one stack at the bottom and one at the top, but I'm not sure which was easier.

I spent about $6 on the ribbon and had already bought the two rolls of wrapping paper for about $2 per roll, so we'll count that too, bringing the grand total to $10 for both topiaries.  Everything else was free or came from my garage.  It took me less than two hours to make both, and could be even shorter for you if you follow my advice about the boxes.

I love the bright colors and am planning to tie in the gift box decor to other parts of the house.  So be on the lookout for more "peace" packaging on the blog!

Linking up to my favorite parties & Kate's Holiday Crafts party.