DIY Christmas trees

Hello All-

I wanted to share a Christmas project with all of you that got a bit of attention on my Facebook page last week.  With a new house and new spaces to decorate, I have been spending a fair amount of time at various stores scouring through their decorations for "the perfect ones."  I noticed that one type of decoration that kept popping up in my search was small decorated Christmas trees.  Not decorated with ornaments and lights, but instead, feathers, paper sheet music, beads, you name it.  A quick search on Pinterest and you'll see countless variations.

I decided to give this new trend the old "DIY try".  So far I have made two trees for our mantle, and if time allows, I will add a third to the set. 

(I apologize that I don't have step-by-step photos, but they are quite easy to make. I didn't expect to be blogging about them until numerous people started sending me messages with questions about them)

The first one I made was the button tree.  I have quite a large button collection, but I wanted some variety and I picked up a few bags of mixed buttons at Michaels.  I will warn you, these can get costly, so this would be the perfect time to get your hands on one of their 50% off coupons!!  Not only do you need lots of buttons, but you'll also want to pick up a Styrofoam tree and lots of push pins.  I decided to go with red and green tipped pins for a bit more color, but any large headed pin will do.  I suppose you could also glue your buttons, but I wanted the ability to change mine around and potentially use some of them in knitting projects. 

You'll want to start pinning your larger, more basic buttons, around the tree.  I found that on the larger ones, using two pins was more helpful in keeping them still.  From there, you keep building up the layers and adding more of the smaller and more unique buttons.  Keep going until you feel that enough of the tree has been covered (you don't want a lot of holes and Styrofoam peeking through).  For buttons with shanks and not holes, simply bend your pin into an "L" shape and poke it through that way.  Also, when you get toward the top, be careful!  My pins started poking through the point of the tree and I had to take a break to let the bleeding stop!!

The next tree I made was a ribbon tree.  To make this one, you again need a Styrofoam tree, and pins, though flat headed ones work best on this project.  You will also need ribbon.  I went with four different patterns and one roll of each.  Depending on how full or colorful you want your tree, you may have to adjust how much ribbon you use.  I used every last scrap I had, and I probably could have used another roll for good measure. 

To make the tree, you simply cut your ribbon into 3-inch lengths.  From there, you fold the ribbon pieces in half and secure them to the tree using pins.  Once you finish your row, you start the next one, slightly overlapping the ribbons to cover the pins from the row below.  Keep going in whatever color pattern you choose, again being careful not to poke yourself as you near the top of the tree.

See, pretty simple!!  I have one more tree that is taller than the other two, and I think I will be covering it in yarn.  A friend suggested pompoms, and if I can get them to stick, that may be an option too.  Hmmm...so many ideas!!

Well, I'm off to ready the little one for school.  Tonight we are decorating our tree, so stay tuned for some photos of that!!

Cheers!
Sharon