Sweethearts Topiary - Evidence of Pinterest Addiction!

First, one of my downline (who dropped to have a baby of all things!) encouraged me to start a blog to share my artwork. I thought "why not"? and have been blogging ever since.
Then, someone dragged me kicking and screaming onto Facebook - and now I really enjoy posting to it.
Next, at a friends encouragement, I got a Twitter account - and sadly, I still don't really get it. Does that make me a 'Twit'? A social media 'fail'?

But NOW, there's this new, addictive time waster called Pinterest! Aiyiyi!
I'm not sure, but this could turn out to be the biggest hit to my time management skills in my entire life! Don't know if you've discovered the joys of pinning and repinning on Pinterest yet, but lemme tell ya - think long and hard before you take the plunge. Like a friend on Facebook said she's "found the rabbit hole called Pinterest."

All that being said, I have found some REALLY cool stuff on Pinterest and one of them was an awesome Sweethearts Candy Heart Topiary Tree. It's probably the best thing you can do with that candy - hot glue it all over something instead of eating it - and it sure looks pretty when you do.
I knew as soon as I saw - and Repinned the photo, I'd be making one of my own. Are you ready for it?
Ok, here goes:

Now honestly, how FUN is that??
I bought a white styrofoam cone at a local craft store and got busy hot glueing those little hearts in neat rows all over it.
The ceramic pot came from the same store - they were on clearance 3 for $1! Score! And the best part is that when I glued the bottom row of hearts on, I was able to drop them down a bit to cover the edge of the cone meeting the pot.

I purchased three regular sized bags of the candy and ended up opening all of them to get the colors and decent word prints I needed. There's probably a full bag worth left over, so I'm gonna try something else with them.
The entire project took about 3 hours from start to finish - yes, really! It's not rocket science people, just some tedious gluing. There's a couple of spots - 3 I think - that I had to use a kitchen knife to trim a heart to make it fit in place, but it's almost impossible to tell where they are. Just know that in advance if you do this with your kids.

Here's the topper I created for my topiary:

I used the Large Scallop Punch for the base and glued two of them back to back around an extra long toothpick. They were edged with Dazzling Diamonds glitter before I added the hearts. The large heart was punched out of the Sweet Shop Designer Series Paper with my Large Heart punch and glittered before gluing down. All the rest of the hearts were cut out with my Fashionable Hearts Embosslit Die and my Big Shot. I used Wisteria Wonder, Wild Wasabi, Marina Mist, Daffodil Delight and Pretty in Pink.
After attaching all of the hearts, I tied some Pretty in Pink Satin Ribbon and Pretty in Pink Scalloped Polka Dot Ribbon around the toothpick at the base of the scallops and inserted the whole thing into the top of the topiary.

Here's a look at the little banner:

I just used the Candy Conversations A La' Carte stamp with Stampin' Write Markers in the same colors I'd used for the hearts and stamped it on Whisper White. It's cut at 1" wide and I used the 1" Square Punch to trim the ends. After curling it a bit, I added some Dazzling Diamonds around the edges, a small piece of Pretty in Pink Satin Ribbon and some hearts, then hot glued it to the topiary.

This was really a fun project to make and not so hard that I wouldn't make another one someday. And for me, the lazy crafter, that's sayin' something!

Hope you enjoy my topiary - let me know if you make one too and if you make it different!
Stamped joy,
~~Robin