Easter Crafts – DIY Easter Peeps Centerpiece

When I saw the Peeps Topiary on Pinterest (from the post at The Hungry Mouse), I knew I had to try one.  We’re hosting Easter brunch/lunch at our house again this year, and I thought it would be a great centerpiece for our table.  Plus it just looked fun to make!  And other than coloring eggs, I don’t always see a lot of Easter crafts, so it was nice to find something a little different to try.

DIY Easter Centerpieces: Peeps Topiary

To start, you’ll need the following items:

• Two 6″ Styrofoam balls
• 1 wooden dowel or stake (12″ long; 1″ thick if using a stake, at least 1/2″ wide if using a dowel)
• Pointed toothpicks (not the flat kind)
• 6″-7″ clay flower pot
• 8 packages of Peeps (5 of the 1st color, 2 of the 2nd color, 1 of the 3rd color)
• jelly beans

Next, insert 1-2 inches of your stake into the bottom of the second Styrofoam ball; make sure it’s centered.

Remove the stake and temporarily set aside.  Set the ball you removed from the stake on top of the flower pot to help hold it steady while you work.  Start by inserting three toothpicks into the top of the ball in a triangle formation.  You’ll want to space them approximately 1″ apart.  Once you have your triangle, use 9 or 10 additional toothpicks to create a circle around the triangle, spacing approximately 1″ apart, as well.  Do not stress about exact placement of the toothpicks (seriously, or you’ll spend an hour just trying to make these first picks “perfect”).  You can adjust and fix gaps later as needed.

Once you have these first 12-13 toothpicks inserted, start adding Peeps.  You can really do whatever pattern – or non-pattern – that you’d like.  I started by adding three pink Peeps onto my original toothpick triangle.  (I purchased my Peeps in the following quantities: 1 box pink, 2 boxes blue, and 5 boxes yellow.)  From there, I added blue Peeps onto the toothpick circle I had inserted around the triangle.

You want to kind of skewer the Peeps with the toothpick going up through the head, then smoosh them a little bit to ensure they stick.  As you go, you WILL lose some Peeps due to gravity.  That’s okay, just keep going (you’ll fix it later).

Continue inserting toothpicks into the Styrofoam ball, creating additional rows on your topiary.  Stagger them in between the existing Peeps to make your topiary nice and full.  Once you’re about half-way done, you’ll want to re-insert the stake into the bottom of the ball and then stick the free end of the stake down into the Styrofoam that’s wedged into the bottom of your pot.  Make sure it’s nice and secure, as this will be the only thing holding up your display.

If you follow the same pattern that I used, you should have enough Peeps to do the top three pink Peeps, a row of blue, three to four rows of yellow, another row of blue, and ending with 3-5 pink ones on the bottom.

Once you’ve placed all the Peeps, go back and re-stick the ones that fell of as you were working.  The other Peeps may provide enough snugness to hold them in, or you may find they’re still slipping a bit.  I ended up cutting a few toothpicks in half and using them to help anchor the ones that looked loose, or to help “guide” a few in a certain direction to close in any gaps.

When you’re done, use a little newspaper or Easter grass to cover the “anchor ball” in the pot; pour your jelly beans on top for some colorful “potting soil”.

What do you plan on decorating your Easter table with?