Tea Cup Topiaries

I wanted to share a picture of something I did a few years back. It was inspired by a wallpaper border and thought it might be a fun idea to share.
I made tea cup topiaries to go on each table and thought I might offer some as gifts.

You'll need:

Tea cups or other vase-type containers

sand

branches

3" Styrofoam ball

moss

I took mismatched cups as well as some adorable ceramic boots and filled them with sand. I then took branches cut from bushes and vines in the yard and wedge them in a 3" styrofoam ball covered with sheet moss.

After wetting the sand in the cups I covered the top of them with the moss as well. I had considered using plaster in the cups to stabilize but didn't know if I wanted to do that to the items I was using. I showed them to some friends a few days later and much to my surprise, the branches are leafing out do to the wet sand, which makes them look more authentic!