Moss Balls and Topiaries (Size Does Matter!)

2 Materials
$10
30 Minutes
Easy
With Blizzard Jonas' visit last weekend, I've had enough of winter. I guess the idea of our deck being colder than our fridge doesn't sit well with me. It makes me feel like a vegetable put on ice to keep crunchy until served! But since winter wants to stick around, it seems I am left with two options: - Behave like a caveman and yell at winter to leave. - Act normal and ignore it. If winter still wants to get cozy, then simply imply that it is no longer wanted by changing the home decor to Spring. I chose the later and started flirting with Spring. I haven't done much yet, but I've done enough to remind me of beautiful warm Spring weather: moss balls and topiaries.
They may look like a lot of work, but they were quite easy to make. So no, I didn't need the skills of Edward Scissorhands to make these beauties :)


My first project was a cork & moss ball, or the "World War II Sea Mine" as Greg calls it. I used some natural color Spanish Moss, wine corks, a hot glue gun and a Wiffle Ball. Any plastic or Styrofoam ball would suffice to make this one, but I prefer a Wiffle Ball, because not only did I already have one on hand, but also its circular holes make everything easier.
I used green Spanish moss for the one I made last year, which you might have seen in Greg's "Filling the Void" post. Not to have two WWII Sea Mines exactly the same, I decided to use natural color Spanish Moss with this second one.
The pine cone & moss ball have the same principle with the WWII Sea Mines.
Believe it or not, making these are so easy!


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After tackling the small ones, I decided to go bigger. Other than the size of the balls, the process was almost the same. Now here is something interesting I learned while making these bigger moss balls -moss ball topiaries- Apparently any moss ball bigger than 6-7 inches gains a much more sophisticated title in stores -Moss Ball Topiary- and is more expensive. So regardless of functionality - which is home decor in this case - size does matter! Anyway... back to the subject.
The only different thing in the process was painting these big ones before hands. Here is the finished 8 inch moss topiary.
With the bigger moss ball topiary (I can't help myself giggling at the name), it was pretty much the same process. The only difference was that I decided to add some vines on top of it so it would resemble the real deal.
Since I made it this far with the moss topiaries, I thought I should try to make something different than just a ball shape. That is when I came up with this little guy.
For this one I used metal strap. The ones I had at home were perforated, but it didn't matter since they were soon to be moss.


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CLICK ON THE LINK above to visit our blog post for the full tutorials on 6 different types of moss balls & topiaries seen in this post.


If you are interested in similar crafts & DIY projects, click here to see more crafts & DiY projects from The Navage Patch. Thanks for reading!
Handan, xo
Suggested materials:
  • Moss
  • Ball
Handan & Greg @ The Navage Patch
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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Frequently asked questions
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3 of 7 questions
  • Nancy Nancy on Mar 04, 2017
    The moss looks brown in the earlier photos, but is a lovely green by the end. Did you do something
  • Ruth Ollis Ruth Ollis on Aug 30, 2017

    Where did you get the GORGEOUS stand that the natural moss ball is sitting on? I am IN LOVE!!!!!

  • Veronica Villouta Stengl Veronica Villouta Stengl on Sep 01, 2017

    Hello everybody! My moss isn´t green...do you paint it?

Comments
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4 of 54 comments
  • Carol Carol on Mar 02, 2017
    Yaaaaargh - can't wait! Meantime, I still haven't found anything round in the size that I want.... Have the moss though, so maybe I'll wait for your other shapes :-)
    • Susan seitz-kulick Susan seitz-kulick on Feb 07, 2019

      If you are going to paint it before gluing the moss on anyway, why not use a child’s plastic ball. They are cheap, Weight next to nothing, and come in different sizes.

  • Denise Denise on Sep 28, 2017

    These are awesome! We live in Ecuador,,,,need to start hunting for material.

    • Oh my - I wish Ecuador was one of those countries we lived in (oh we lived in many...LOL) so I could help you with all the info on where to find the supplies :-)
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