Saturday, December 10, 2011

Homemade Holiday Decor

As soon as I discovered that the bush on the side of our house has branches that look like little trees, I knew I had to create something with them. Well, how about a holiday centerpiece for our dining room table? Yes!
This is the type of project that could be recreated in many different ways depending on your taste. This is how I created it.


Here are the supplies you will need if you decide to make one like mine:
- branches
- dry craft foam
- glue
- newspaper
- scissors
- white paint
- paint brushes
- funky ribbon
- lots of glitter
- mini ornaments
There are a few things not pictured above that I found helpful as I created since I was winging this:
- tape
- twine

First, create a base. Glue together the foam pieces to create a shape you want. I used 5 bricks (~3x3.5x8 each) to create my base. After gluing them together, lay them on a flat surface to dry. You can also buy one bigger foam piece and shape it to your liking, I thought the big pieces were to expensive so I connected little ones.

Next, wrap your foam in newspaper to keep it from shedding foam bits. Make sure to put the side with tape face down so that when you put in the branches, the tape is not in the way. Then wrap in whatever you would like! I decided to leave mine covered in just newspaper cause I'm a fan of the newspaper look. But, you could wrap yours in anything really, burlap, dry moss, wrapping paper, fabric, etc. Once it's wrapped, insert the branches. Just poke them right in and make sure not to go all the way through the foam, that will decrease stability.

After putting the branches in, gently pull out each one, fill the hole with glue and carefully push the branch back in.

Time to paint! I chose to use white acrylic paint so it would look like snow, but you can really paint them any color with any type of paint. Just keep adding paint until it looks right to you.

Then comes the glitter...glitter everywhere! I started by mixing a little of my glue with water to make it thinner. Then I sponged it onto the branches and base and sprinkled glitter all over. Soon I was just adding glitter to my glue slurry and painting that on...the more glitter the better. Then you can use the acrylic white paint to make little white mounds on the base and sprinkle them with white glitter.

Just glitter and paint till you like it.

Add whatever type of string or ribbon you would like to the base and hang the ornaments.

And your done! I plan on adding some little snowmen or something to the base of mine. 
Now, go make one! It is fun and easy and the only thing that I needed to buy was the foam...so cheap too! I bet that you have most of these supplies in your home as well. And if you don't have a bush that creates little tree-looking branches, well any branch will do!

I hope you all are enjoying the holidays so far, they are my favorite!
Tomorrow the holidays at our home will get even merrier...we are getting another dog! You will have to check back in...I am sure his homecoming will be worth a post :)







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