A Time for Jelly Bean Topiaries

Jena's 1st birthday is coming up and for the theme I choose to do jelly beans because we call her Jena Bean and because I didn't love anything the stores were selling. I do not normally go all out for birthdays. All the kids have had a 1st birthday and we always celebrate with family, sometimes extended family sometimes not. I honestly feel birthday parties have gotten a little crazy when it comes to how extravagant some can be. Then again, who am I to tell people how to spend their money!  I say all this to say that for someone who isn't usually into big birthday parties, I am going nuts with Jena's party. I think it's because she's my first girl and let's face it, she's spoiled and I'm a little obsessed with her. My mother-in-law sent me this link for instructions on how to make a Jelly Bean Topiary. I fell in love with this idea and decided I would make these for Jena's party. I tweaked it a little to make it my own as you can see. It was a little time consuming but so worth the effort. I love how they turned out. 


What You'll Need: (to make one)
Approx. 150-200 long pearlized pins
1 foam ball 
Long wooden dowel
A bucket 
Green foam 
Moss or colored grass
Approx. 3 bags of jelly beans
Ribbon (optional)
Rocks


I did not paint my foam balls, I left them white. Start by taking the dowel and making a small hole in one end of the foam ball. For the jelly beans any brand will do. It's up to you what color you want them. I happened to find the Jolly Rancher brand for $0.88 a bag at Marden's so that's what I used. Start pinning the jelly beans to the foam ball. You can do this however you want. I went in a circular pattern for one and for the second did a more random pattern. Stick a long pin in the middle of the jelly bean to secure it to the foam ball. Do this till it's completely covered. Place the green foam at the bottom of the bucket. When the foam ball is completely covered with jelly beans stick the wooden dowel into it then place it in the bucket using the green foam to secure it. I had to use rocks to weight down the foam once the topiary was in place because it was too top heavy. Then cover the rocks with moss or colored grass. If you like you can tie ribbon around the dowel. It's that easy!