Last year Michael and I made a 10 foot tree out of scrap wood that we put in our front yard.
Gargantuan Outside Tree |
This year, we decided to bring the design indoors.
Bringing the Party Indoors |
Things you'll need:
1. A saw. We have one of these: DeWalt Circular Saw . It's a great product and easy to use.
2. Scrap wood. We used a 1x4 for the tree trunk and 2x4's and other scraps for the branches.
3. Spray Paint. I really like the Rustoleum brand. Here's a few links to the colors we used for this tree. Green Meadow and Hunter Green. Ps. You tree doesn't have to be green.
4. Eye Hooks: Golden Eye Hooks
5. A Makita electric drill. That's the brand Hot Papa has and it's pretty fabulous because it charges so quickly. Honestly, you don't need anything near as fancy but if you or your other likes power tools this is a good one.
6. Your Imagination!
In order to make the tree branches spaced somewhat regularly we laid out a couple of scrap 1x4s to frame the tree and then took a pencil and made tic marks on the wood we were using as branches to serve as cutting guides.
As you can see, we didn't measure (my contribution) but we did use something as a guide (Hot Papa's contribution). We wanted the "branches" to adhere to a traditional Christmas tree shape so we used what we had and did the best we could with it.
4. Eye Hooks: Golden Eye Hooks
5. A Makita electric drill. That's the brand Hot Papa has and it's pretty fabulous because it charges so quickly. Honestly, you don't need anything near as fancy but if you or your other likes power tools this is a good one.
6. Your Imagination!
In order to make the tree branches spaced somewhat regularly we laid out a couple of scrap 1x4s to frame the tree and then took a pencil and made tic marks on the wood we were using as branches to serve as cutting guides.
Our make-do guide |
After you cut your branches the next step is to paint them. We tied them up to a rope and hung them from a tree branch in our front yard to spray paint them, cuz we are white trash. We waited an hour or so for them to dry.
Drying Party in the Garage...woot woot! |
Once they branches dried the annoying part came in. We had to attach all the eye hooks so we could hang our ornaments. This step wasn't hard it just took a while. First we drilled a hole and then put each eye hook in place. I did this part. I didn't have any sort of pattern I was adhering to and by the end I just wanted to be done. I suggest random placement for your eye hooks. This takes a little pressure off of being perfect. Keep your ornaments in mind as you do this step. I knew what I had so I was able to visualize how much distance between ornaments and I needed.
After you've completed your eye hook placement the only thing left is to screw your boards to the trunk. Place them however you want. They can be straight. They can be crooked. Who cares?
Hot Papa made a tree stand for our tree but you can just as easily lean it up against a wall.
Merry Crafty Christmas!