Earthy Outdoor Christmas Tree – Part 2

Here are more tutorials to help you complete your Earthy Outdoor Christmas Tree!  See Part 1 for other tutorials.

Step 5: Adding the eye candy.  I like to save all my bigger pieces to add at the end.  That way I can fill in the gaps and layer accordingly.
Have you ever come across something so fantastic you just can’t wait to share? Well folks, I had an aha! moment and can’t wait to share it with you!  So in our house we have boys, which means we do a lot of laundry. Since my boys are growing like little weeds we tend to hang their clothes to dry, especially their pants. That also means we have a whole stock of clothes pins and since my boys help out and pull the clothes off the line, we tend to have a lot of pins get pulled apart and I have a special place I put them, thinking one day I will reassemble them. It was completely full before my project.  I just forgot to take the picture. When my youngest pulled out the jar with all the pieces and started to make shapes with them an idea was formed.  Make a snowflake!

You need 16 pieces or 8 sets to make a snowflake. Lay them out and paint them. I decided to try gold leafing mine. It was a little bit of a process but I love how they turned out! Grab your glue gun and add a thin line of glue, line your two pieces back to back and press together.  Repeat 7 times.

For the 8th one, you are going to want to add your jute (you could also use ribbon). Tack a little glue to both sides of ribbon, add a line of glue down the clothes pin, and sandwich together. Hot glue your top and bottom piece first, then add each side so you have a 4 prong star. Add the remaining pieces and Ta-da! Here’s your snowflake!  Pretty cool right?

One idea I have always wanted to try was something with chalkboard.  I picked up a few supplies at our local craft store and went to town.  Here’s a little trick, use aluminum foil when painting your stuff that way you don’t have to worry about it sticking to the back and it’s super easy to clean up. It took about 3 coats to get it just right.  Can I say I’m in love?

I found some sayings I wanted to incorporate and I played with with the fonts a few times.  Okay, so a lot before I finally got it how I wanted it. Did I mention I am in love with this?  Because I am.  Since the wood was thinner, I just used a hole punch to make my holes and used…you guessed it!  Jute to string through and make my hanger.

I think it’s safe to say you all know how much I adore..love…am obsessed with burlap right?  So here’s yet another creation to make using burlap.  I have a whole bolt around here so I made burlap poinsettias.

I came up with a leaf shape and cut out. Then cut 3” strips of burlap, cut out and put in a pile.  You’ll want to fold in half and then in half again like so.  You need to have 5 for each side. Take a needle and some thread and thread through all 5, staying on the bottom half.  Do this a few time and pull nice and tight. Set down and do with 5 more for other side.

You should have 2 pieces that look like this. Pick up, turn over and using your needle and thread, bind them together. When you are done your pieces should look like this.

I had a bunch of wooden beads around so I used a little hot glue and paired my beads three at a time.  To stick in the tree, I used wooden skewers, chopped them in half, and put the sharp pointy end into the base of the flower.  It holds really well and stuck it in the tree.

Step 6: Tree skirt.  You guessed it!  To finish up, we still need to add the skirt and that’s right…more burlap. I cut off 2 yards, unfolded it and layered it around the tree.

 

I love the way it all turned out. What is your favorite part? Do you have a favorite piece? What about you?  Are you willing to make a few pieces for your tree? I hope you all have the Merriest of Christmases and your holiday is full of joy and happiness.