To make a coffee topiary you will need:
- coffee beans;
- cardboard, in my craft - corrugated;
- cotton pads for removing makeup;
- paper napkins;
- threads;
- acrylic paint brown or black, brush;
- sushi stick;
- leg-split;
- cup and saucer;
- plaster or putty;
- cinnamon stick, star anise, satin ribbons, beads for decoration;
- heat gun and glue.
The initial stage of work is preparing the heart itself. Of course, in a specialized store you can purchase a foam blank or find a plastic heart somewhere, but I suggest you make it yourself from ordinary cardboard. So, draw a heart, cut out two blanks. Having coated one of the blanks well with glue, fasten the stick and assemble the heart.
To form the volume, we glue the heart with cotton pads, wrapping them on the end part of the workpiece. For ease of painting, I pasted on white paper napkins.
In order for the entire structure to hold well and not fall apart, we tie the heart with threads.
The next stage is painting the heart with black or brown acrylic paint.
Thus, we create a uniform background that will not be noticeable, even if some piece of the surface of the heart is not covered by coffee beans. Painting is especially important if you decide to make a heart with one layer of coffee.
After the paint has dried, you can proceed to the most important stage - gluing the coffee beans. I start from the end, gluing the grains with the cut side down, filling the entire blank.
Glue the second layer of coffee with the cut side up, trying to place the beans between the rows of the first layer. If you accidentally spilled a lot of glue and it is visible, you can paint over the glue with brown acrylic paint.
We decorate the topiary trunk by coating it with glue and tying it with twine.
Now the topiary needs to be secured in the cup. To do this, spread the plaster (putty) thick enough, insert the trunk, trying to keep it level, and wait for a while for the trunk to stand on its own.
After the plaster has dried, decorate it with coffee beans secured with glue. You can also go over the plaster with brown paint and cover it with a layer of loose leaf tea or ground coffee.
Glue a cinnamon stick, star anise and ribbon onto the heart. At the base of the heart we tie a bow of brown satin ribbon, up to 1 cm wide, and decorate the knot with a bead.
We decorate the base with a rosette twisted from a red satin ribbon, 25 mm wide. Using glue, place several coffee beans on a saucer. Also, at the end, you can cover the coffee beans with acrylic varnish, which does not interrupt the smell of coffee.
Your topiary is now complete! A little imagination, patience - and you have an excellent extraordinary gift for a loved one!
