Container Series: Plants Night Out

Amanda Thomsen

I scoured actual trends for Autumn 2017/Winter 2018 in fashion magazines before I came up with this. The trends? Ostrich feathers, velvet, metallics and plaid.

I couldn’t make the plaid work, but here’s what I did come up with. It would be a perfect hostess gift for NYE or even a centerpiece for a swanky holiday dinner.

MATERIALS

4-in. fern (or other indoor plant)

5-in. square vase

A hot glue gun

A length of velvet

8- to 10-in. ostrich feathers

Mod Podge

Two small paintbrushes

24-carat gold leaf sheets

HOW-TO

Begin by tracing the size of your vase onto the piece of velvet so that you end up with a long piece that will cover the four sides. Hot glue the velvet in place.

Drop the fern into the vase (I left it in the grower pot so it would still get drainage) and choose a few leaves to paint with Mod Podge. Once the adhesive becomes tacky, carefully move a piece of gold leaf to rest on it. Use a clean, dry brush on top of the gold leaf. This will make sure it sticks to all the nooks and crannies.

Let the Mod Podge dry overnight, dry brush away the extra gold, insert a few ostrich feathers and uncork some bubbly! GP

Amanda Thomsen is a gardening author and blogger. You can find her funky, punky blog planted at www.kissmyaster.co and you can follow her on Facebook, Twitter AND Instagram @KissMyAster.