Potpourri or Cacti

I found an old plastic box of potpourri in my car this morning. It didn't smell......That's OK. I didn't buy it for the smell. I bought it for the shapes of the seed pods. I always take a look at the potpourri in the stores, especially the cheap kind. It won't smell for long. That's good. Sometimes it has miniature cacti hidden inside. That's even better!

If you inspect your potpourri, you will find that some of the pods and the seeds inside, when painted make wonderful miniature cacti.

In this photo you will see several kinds that can be used. I especially like the little pine cones to the left. They make wonderful barrel cactus when painted dark green. The white pod on the other side looked pretty good. When I got it home and broke a few of them open I found the seeds that are lying in front of the pods. Those look exactly like a real euphorbia that I have on the back patio when painted Wedgwood green.

I am not sure what the red ones are and I ended up not using those because they were too soft. The same with the cream colored ones in the center. I only found one of the long pine cone looking one in the center. I would love more of those. The tiny round ones that you see in the photo of the finished gardens are eucalyptus pods from a tree we had in the back yard of our other house.

I took little terracotta pots and stuffed them with floral foam. That was the basis. Then I used Ceramcoat, Wedgwood green, Forrest green and pine green to paint the pods. I let them dry and did a bit of dry brushing here and there to emphasize the little points. I try to paint all of the same kind of pods the same color.

I went out in the back yard and looked for a few tiny stones.

I coated the top of the floral foam all the way to the edge of the pot with Elmer's white glue. I stuck a few of the pods and cones into each pot with a couple of rocks to fill in. Then I poured sifted dirt, also from the back yard, over that to fill in the gaps. Let them dry. Cactus garden bowls in mini! Simple to make and fun.

So the next time you buy potpourri, don't smell to see if it smells good. Look to see if there are magic mini cacti in there!

Tune in tomorrow.