A Snowy Candyland Christmas Tree December 11, 2014 Christmas, DIY, Fabric and Textiles, Home Decor 3 Comments 12355 Ya’ll I’m going WAY out of the box this year. You know I have a long history of getting a little lodgey in the winter, and I love using the rustic elements on my tree as well. Take a look at my previous trees here and here. I obviously have an obsession with plaid and burlap. But after last year, I decided to get crazy and buy a bunch of ornaments on sale in a completely different color scheme. Turquoise, pink, purple, lime, and silver…yup total candyland style awesomeness. Of course that meant that none of the other tree decorating items I already own matched, so I had to start from square one. First up: tree skirt. For some reason, I decided to make it of white faux fur. I have no explanation for this other than it’s fluffy and the cats seem to like it. I bought a 60″ square piece (in hindsight, I probably could have gotten away with a smaller cut), and expertly crafted lazily cut it to shape. I just folded it twice in half and cut a rough arc out of the top layer. Then I cut the rest of the layers to match. Then I opened up the whole thing and cut a keyhole like a traditional skirt. BOOM. No sew tree skirt. After I spent 20 minutes vacuuming up the stray fur- some of which was thrown around the house by the cats- I put the skirt in place around the base of our tree and moved on to step 2: garland. Continuing with the fluffy idea, my first thought was mini pom poms. I even saw perfect jewel toned little guys in bags at the craft store. Too bad it was like $4 for 20. It’s definitely more appropriate for me to spend $4 on this entire project. While scouring the kid’s crafting section for something cheap en masse, I see larger white pom poms. Better, but still pricey. “Ooh! Cotton balls!” I love it when that happens. 600 cotton balls, roughly $4, some thread, and a couple hours of my life was all it took to create a fluffy cotton ball garland worthy of this year’s tree. Some may think 2 hours is too long, but don’t people do this with popcorn?? At least I can re-use my version! Before I started putting everything on the tree, I needed to complete step 3: flocking. If you’re unfamiliar with this term (I was), it’s essentially faux-snow blowing your tree. Because in real life indoor trees can have snow on them. I used the same recipe I have in the past which involves beating the crap out of these ingredient with a mixer: 2 cups grated Ivory soap (about 1.5-2 bars) 2/3 cup liquid starch (Bounce Ironing Spray also works) 4 tbsp hot water Apply the shaving cream like product to the tree with your hands for the most natural effect. I actually had to mix up two batches to cover the tree to my liking, and I almost mixed up another (actually I would have, if I had more soap). Let the flocking dry overnight before adding your decorations, but even then it will flake off a bit – just be gentle. After I flocked the tree, added the lights, garland and ornaments, it looked like this: Can you find the cat photobomb? Since I had to get all new ornaments, I didn’t cover the tree heavily…those things get expensive! I used a lot of balls and sale ornaments, but there are a couple of ornaments that are special. I mean, obviously. Are you telling me you could resist this completely unrealistic owl ornament? I found it in a gift shop at Biltmore Estate, therefore it’s the poshest sparkle owl in all the land. This sweet ornament was a gift from a friend I recently taught to knit. How awesome is it?? To fill in the tree a bit more, I took advantage of a sale and a coupon at Michaels for some sparkle picks. I do sometimes get a little carried away in the sparkle pick section of the store, but in this case I felt it was justified. Take this giant pink feather, for instance. Truthfully I spent about a week looking for a reasonable peacock feather situation, but in the end I decided these would do the trick. I absolutely love the look of the snow on the tree. It’s sort of like a compromise between a regular tree and a white one (which I really don’t think I could commit to, but I have seen beautiful ones). I actually really like the colors on this tree more than I thought I would. I tend to gravitate towards the natural earthy colors, but it’s nice to change things up every once in awhile. Did you try something new this year? Or do you have a set theme you add to every year? I’m still working on decorating the rest of the house, but I’ll share pictures soon. 3 Responses Mary Fran December 11, 2014 I love it! I usually do the red/green/traditional theme too…but 2 years ago I changed up my mantle…I would post a pic, but not sure how to do that! Total Geek Fail!!! I did white/blue/red…lots of snow flocked items too! The cat comment cracked me up! I too have to make things comfy for mine…and they do seem to enjoy “helping” me decorate! Can’t wait to see the rest of the house! Reply Linda Reed December 11, 2014 Love your tree. I used to put up 3 trees. 1 with all cat and mouse ornaments, 1 with all handmade ornaments and 1 with store bought ornaments. when we had parties, I noticed men were drawn to the homemade ornaments one, cat & mouse one came in second. No one paid much attention to “commercial” one. Yours would get lots of attention. Merry Christmas! Reply Paula December 11, 2014 Very cute tree! In case you ever want to try popcorn garland, it Can be reused–for years. Use plain popcorn with no oil. Use strong thread, like for quilting. Instead of one long strand I made separate strands to circle the different levels. My dogs never eat it, not even the first year I put it out. I wish I could say the same for my homemade gingerbread ornaments. I store the strung popcorn in numbered ziploc bags so I can tell which strand goes on the bottom row. In the attic it goes until next year. Reply Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. CAPTCHA Code * Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Check here to Subscribe to notifications for new posts
Mary Fran December 11, 2014 I love it! I usually do the red/green/traditional theme too…but 2 years ago I changed up my mantle…I would post a pic, but not sure how to do that! Total Geek Fail!!! I did white/blue/red…lots of snow flocked items too! The cat comment cracked me up! I too have to make things comfy for mine…and they do seem to enjoy “helping” me decorate! Can’t wait to see the rest of the house! Reply
Linda Reed December 11, 2014 Love your tree. I used to put up 3 trees. 1 with all cat and mouse ornaments, 1 with all handmade ornaments and 1 with store bought ornaments. when we had parties, I noticed men were drawn to the homemade ornaments one, cat & mouse one came in second. No one paid much attention to “commercial” one. Yours would get lots of attention. Merry Christmas! Reply
Paula December 11, 2014 Very cute tree! In case you ever want to try popcorn garland, it Can be reused–for years. Use plain popcorn with no oil. Use strong thread, like for quilting. Instead of one long strand I made separate strands to circle the different levels. My dogs never eat it, not even the first year I put it out. I wish I could say the same for my homemade gingerbread ornaments. I store the strung popcorn in numbered ziploc bags so I can tell which strand goes on the bottom row. In the attic it goes until next year. Reply