foil pie pan rose topiary

If you’re still considering what to use as a centerpiece this holiday, here’s a very stunning project you can easily do: make silver rosettes out of the edges of foil pie pans and glue them together into one very marvelous and modern topiary.

This is one of those ideas I wish I had conceived earlier in the season.  The belated idea only dawned on me last weekend as I was making my floral stamped clay bangles, which I baked on a couple of foil pie pans.  I’ve been saving them for purposes like that and this.  I always knew my small collection of foil pie pans could be used for something really wonderful.  However, I was kidding myself — I could barely make a topiary out of the handful stored in my cupboard.  This project requires a good bundle of them — eighty in total.  I bought much, much more from the dollar store and managed to pull off this décor masterpiece for less than $15 (and that includes a whole pack of glue sticks, also from the dollar store). 

You will need:

a. 30 of 9″ pie pans and 50 of 4″ pie pans.

b. Hot glue gun and glue sticks (I used up a pack of 16 glue sticks).

c. Balloon, strips of newspaper, and some white glue or papier maché paste.

d. Paint and paint brush.

1. Papier maché your balloon.  I use a simple 1:1 ratio of white glue and water.  Let dry and release the balloon.

2. Paint the papier maché ball.  I chose an apple green color that I imagined would give a funky dimension to the topiary, however, in hindsight, I wish I had chosen black.

3. Cut away the flat bottom of your foil pie pan.

4. Roll into a rose. Please BE CAREFUL as the edges are sharp.  Only touch the uncut edges.

5. Continue steps 3 and 4 for all 80 pans.

6. Using a hot glue gun, randomly glue the roses on the papier maché ball.

The result of this project turned out so much better than I had conceived in my mind.  I had the fear that it would look cheap, but it’s in fact no easy guess that this topiary is made from foil pie pans!  I intend on using this topiary for several holiday seasons.  What’s best is that once I’m done with it years from now, it will go straight into recycling.  The foil pie pans are 100% recyclable, so is the papier maché ball I used as a base.

 P.S. If you’re having a modern winter wedding, I think this might be the diva-on-a-dime décor item for you.

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