Felt Succulent Window Box DIY

I'm really excited to share today's post! You guys know I've been totally obsessed with creating a Palm Springs themed, kid-friendly guest room, right? No? Oh, OK... well here's a little recap!

First I shared a DIY for gold foil cactus wallpaper. It came out pretty magical and got the room off to a great start. Then Laura helped me create some large scale plush cacti. They're so cute! And today I'm back again to share an idea for garden boxes that we created for the bunk beds.

I wanted to fill the room with kid versions of grown up things. These boxes add so much to the room and are a fun plushie play on my plant obsession.

Laura and I tag teamed this tutorial.

Supplies:
-green felt (in various shades)
-brown felt
-wire and wire snippers
-fabric scissors
-glue or hot glue gun
-peel and stick velcro
-window boxes
-cardboard
-pillow stuffing

To make some ric-rac cactus-type plants, fold a section of your green felt in half and cut out squiggly, curvy shapes that are about 14" long (folding the felt before you cut will give you two pattern pieces exactly the same). Cut about 8-10 of these per plant. Place a wire between the two pattern pieces and use fabric glue to glue around the edges, trapping the wire between the layers (the metal you see in the photo above is just pins holding the matching pairs in place before adding the wire). Having the wire allows you to move and bend the cactus arms as you please once it's planted in your box.

Stack 8-10 of your arms on top of each other (lining up all the bases together), and glue the bottom inch of each plant arm to the one on either side. Use another piece of felt to wrap and secure the bottom of your bundle together and glue the felt in place.

For the more ball-shaped cactus, cut several different sized circles of felt fabric. Keep in mind that your finished cactus will be a little smaller than half your circle diameter, so cut them accordingly. Use embroidery thread to hand sew around the perimeter of the circle, stuff the middle with pillow stuffing, and then pull the thread tight and knot to create your ball. Use more thread to thread up through the middle of the cactus, down the side, and back up through the middle again to create the sections of the cactus. Add some thread knots for needles or make a flower to decorate the top!

For the last style of succulent, it's all about layering petals. This will give you more of an agave or echeveria look depending on what color green you use and if your leaf is elongated like an agave or short with the rounded edge of an echeveria. Fold your fabric (so you get double the pieces per cut) and cut three sizes of leaves with the smallest around 2" and largest around 5-6". Starting with the smallest, place a small amount of glue at the base and pinch together until dry. Keep adding leaves to your first original leaf, staggering the leaf placement as you go, until you work your way up in size and your plant takes shape!

When you are finished, glue some fabric strips over the base of your plant to make a smoother area for the velcro. Add some velcro strips to the bottom of your plant.

Cut pieces of cardboard that are the exact size of the interior of your window box.

Trace the cardboard onto some brown felt, cut the felt, and attach to the cardboard with a hot glue gun. Mark with a marker where you want to "plant" your ric-rac cactus, and use an X-Acto knife to cut out a hole just big enough for the cactus end to fit into snugly.

To keep the brown felt board from sinking further into the window box, cut a long strip of cardboard that takes up most of the depth of the window box and zigzag it back and forth in the box. Once you place the felt board on top, it will sit right on top of the cardboard underneath.

Attach the velcro strips to all your plants and their opposing sides to the brown cardboard. Now your window box is ready to hang!

To make the mother of pearl succulent sections, I used paper covered floral wire, super glue and green felt balls in two sizes. I found mine on Etsy at this shop.

To make each strand, I just put super glue on one ball and squeezed them together for about 60 seconds each until they were dry. (Go ahead and insert as many ball jokes as you want here... I can't stop you.)

Last, I twisted 3-4 wires together and added them to the window boxes.

The results are SO pretty and really add a LOT to my room. They're the first thing you see when you walk into the room!

Now, you can make these for any planter! It doesn't have to be a window box. Get creative and figure out a way you can incorporate some plush plants into your kiddo room! xx- Elsie

ps- SO excited to share the FULL ROOM with you soon!

Credits//Author and Photography: Elsie Larson and Laura Gummerman. Photos edited with A Beautiful Mess actions.