Sunday, December 5, 2010

Paper Christmas Tree

I love the Charlie Brown Christmas tree as seen here


Over the years they have made ones that you can have at home that look like this


I also really like this twig topiary by David Stark for West Elm


And as I was talking about in the twilight post I wanted to make one, a hybrid of the two actually. 


I wanted to combine the two, the base, childhood memories, and minimal ornaments of the Charlie Brown tree paired with the book covering of the David Stark edition. 

Supplies
  • tree branches
  • glue
  • glitter (if desired)
  • masking tape
  • bendy medal
  • book pages (from a Twilight Breaking Dawn book that had seen better days)
  • a slat from a wooden pallet
  • faux evergreen if desired

The best part of this project? It was all FREE! Tree branches I aquried from someone's pruning pile, glue I had, glitter I omitted (but had if I wanted), masking tape I have plenty of. Bendy metal I had from stipping the snowflake branches I had, book pages from a book I replaced because I had spilled tomato juice during a particuarally turbulant airplane ride, and a pallet slat one of the boys, well technically 2 of the boys from work got me. The first guy got me one I forgot it someone threw it away. I asked a second boy who brought me another. A third boy removed the rusty nails for me. 


Remember those branches that I jacked rescued from the side of the road, well I had been scoping them out everyday on my way to work.


So I cut up the first seven chapters of Breaking Dawn. See the complete idea for the book, and the reason I was cutting it up here.


I started with the branch that Mikey Like the best, as I had brought home three options. 


Then I used extra metal bendy things to stabilize certain branches that I was going to put really heavy ornaments on, or to make additional branches all together. Then I wrapped them in masking tape to stay all together. 


Years ago when Pier one did their 90% off Christmas decor I purchased this never knowing what I would end up using it for, I am sure it cost me less than a dollar though. 


I then wrapped them to the tree tightly with masking tape. 


Then I started to decopage the pages on I had cut them to one inch strips and all the boarder off, I also then cut them in half because that was more than enough for the little branches. I am sure when I get to the larger 
branches I will have to use a full length. So last night I did a foot and it took me about 40 minutes. This was going to be a long project, it took me about ten hours or so in total. 


I however think it looks excellent!


After a few ornaments had been added the vintage typewriter ball no. 2, silver dipped mistletoe, and silver dipped aspen leaves. I will find a home for the tree tomorrow. 

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6 comments:

  1. Wow! Lots of hard work - but it looks like it paid off. A very classy result!
    Meredith @ Welcome to Heardmont

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  2. Wow, what a very cool idea! And it turned out great! Good work, and thanks for sharing it with us!
    : ) Meg

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  3. Brilliant brilliant brilliant. And beautiful too ;)

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  4. Very cute! I'm taking my holiday decorating cue from David Stark this year as well. I'll post about a few of my projects soon.

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