How To Make Decorative Christmas Trees

How To Make Decorative Christmas Trees

I’m sure you’ve noticed those small decorative Christmas trees that come in various styles, materials and sizes. They seem to be everywhere this Christmas, but unfortunately they can be quite pricey (especially the nicer ones), like this one I saw at Pottery Barn!

I wanted to get one for the house  but since I didn’t want to spend a fortune, I had two options: either wait until they were marked down, or just forget about it. Well, since I really wanted one and none of the above seemed like a good enough solution, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work!

To mimic that Pottery Barn tree,  I got a green styrofoam floral cone (17 inches/43 cm high ), a new broom, scissors, my glue gun, a few branches from my backyard, bronze spray paint and gold glue glitter. Cutting pieces about 4 to 5 inches long from the broom and gluing them on the cone was  a super easy task – styrofoam is an amazing material for these kind of crafts!  I started from the lower part of the cone and worked my way up. For the very top part of the cone, I used shorter pieces.

Styrofoam Tree

When I was done, I sadly realized that my little tree remind me more of a Hawaiian hut and less of a Christmas tree.  So I cut some branches from my backyard and attached them with the glue gun here and there, making them pop out of the cone.  I then spray painted the whole tree with a shiny bronze and added gold glue glitter on some of the branches.  Ready!

Tree BroomI liked this project so much that it made me want to make a bigger collection.  So, I got four more cones of different sizes and this time, I used pine cone seeds. I detached  the seeds by hand and for the harder ones I used pliers  (if you do this, make sure to protect your eyes). With some old scissors, I rounded the top part of the seeds cutting off any excess or broken part.

Cutting Seeds Off

With my glue gun I attached a  row around the lower end of my tree, and kind of fitted the ones above between the gaps of the first row.

  Gluing Seeds On

I made two of those.  To the right one, I added gold glue glitter around its ends.

Same Species

 

And this is a third pine cone tree made from a different species of pine.  I love how its ends curve up. I think, it is my favorite one!

Pine Tree With Ends Curving Up

Last, I made one entirely of hazelnuts.  I’m not sure how it will last until next year, but right now it looks perfect. First I painted the green cone with that bronze spray to hide the little gaps in between the hazelnuts . I glued the hazelnuts the exact same way I did with the pine cone seeds. When it was done,  I couldn’t decide between spray painting the whole tree and/or adding glitter but I finally decided to just leave it in its natural color. 

Four Trees

The bases are just various size unopened food cans covered in a luxurious gold paper  with a piece of double sided tape. To attach my trees on them, I dropped some hot glue on their top.  When the holidays are over, I will unwrap them and put them back in my pantry and use new ones next Christmas.

The “broom” tree  came out to be the  the most expensive ($10), though extremely cheap compared to the ones in stores. The only expense I made for the pine cone trees was buying the cones – only a couple of dollars for each.  I had the pine cones from last fall when I had found them during one of my morning walks.  For the hazelnut tree, I just had to buy the hazelnuts – so all in all, I can’t believe that I made a whole collection of those for less than $30!

I arranged some faux  Christmas greenery around them and added some Christmas lights. They look magical! All hand made of natural materials!

Decorative Trees

Especially when it gets darker, their gold, bronze and brown shades sparkle at the lights. All of them are sized between 7 and 17 inches (17-43 cm) to sit perfectly on a mantel, table or buffet. For additional sparkling, I arranged some shiny glittery balls next to them, in between the lights and the garland.

Pine Cone Trees

I spent about 2 mornings to make them, but it was totally worth it.  For each one I made, I was inspired to make an another one, different from the one before it. In fact, I already have an idea for one next year!

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Hi! I'm Angelica! For the last ten years I've been sharing my cooking, home projects and ideas with my sister Irene. "Once Again, My Dear Irene" is just an extension of our daily chats. Moreover "My Dear Irene" Continue Reading