Viva la Christmas Tree

When I was a teenager my mom decided to do a sort of art deco Christmas tree thing.  She strung pieces of garland around rope and hung it from the ceiling.  The pieces of garland were attached to this wooden disk and in the middle of it was a nativity set.  I thought it was totally strange as a young'en but now I see the genius.  Which brings me to this post.

Last year Michael and I made a 10 foot tree out of scrap wood that we put in our front yard.  

Gargantuan Outside Tree 

I'm fairly certain this tree is some variation of something I saw on Pinterest.  The colors I used were of my choosing and the wood we used to build this thing was dying a slow death on our garage floor.  One afternoon and a few power tools later, Hot Papa and I had a huge tree that lives on the walk-way to our front door...maybe not the best place for it but you can see it from the entrance to the neighborhood so that's something, right?

This year, we decided to bring the design indoors.

Bringing the Party Indoors

If you look closely you can see Hot Papa making spaghetti.  And my messy kitchen table.  Oh well, thus is life.  So now you are probably wondering, "How do I make one of these lovelies ditties?"  Guess what?  I'm about to tell you.  You'll need a few hours, some tools, eye hooks, scrap wood, spray paint, and a sense of humor for this one.  I tend to take a rapid fire approach to creation:  I don't measure and just see what happens.  Hot Papa is much more calculated so this project was a chance for both of us to give a litte.  The tree is straighter than I tend to like and it's not as straight as Hot Papa would have on his own.  Compromise!  So let's get started.

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.

Our make-do guide

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.  

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!

Christmas Wreath Goodness Part 2: Completion

The Finished Product

It is finished!  I'm very pleased with the results although I've begun another one and Hot Papa, the husband, informed me this morning that he likes the new one better...oh well.  Second time's a charm right?

So here's the rest of the steps for completion.  When last we met, the wreath looked like this:

Glitter Ball Bombed Letter Goodness

I must admit trying to figure out how to get the letter attached to the frame was quite a conundrum for me.  I ended up threading a stout needle with fishing line and then using a hammer to push it through.  Sounds a little white-trash-like but when crafting at the Maleski household you do whats you got to do.  So I did.  Here's what you'll need to get your glitter bombed letter affixed to your frame:

Beads, Letter (back of it), tape measurer, needle,
clear thread, a hammer (not pictured because I forgot to...oops)

From the above pic, you can see that I've already gotten one side completed.  To make sure my beads on the completed side didn't slide off, I used some duck tape and adhered it to the back.  White-trash-like:  keep it real and practical.

My helpful hammer

Now, you may be asking yourself, "Lauren, just how do I make my glitter-tastic letter float inside my frame?"  Here's how.  Take a stout needle, I'm not sure what gauge it was but it was big.  I threaded it with some fishing line.  I tried to push it through myself but I couldn't so I grabbed a hammer and that did the trick.  By placing the needle on the letter and tapping it partially through, I was able to ensure that the needle would come out the other side (so I wouldn't have a needle living inside of my letter)

Below you'll see the threaded needle, not lost forever inside of my letter.  Tie the loose end on the backside of the letter with several knots to make sure your thread doesn't pull through.  That would be no good!

What you'll get 

I hate measuring.  That's why I'm not a good cook and Hot Papa doesn't like for me to hang pictures.  I prefer to free flow things but in the end there's nothing wrong with a little structure.  To make sure that my letter hung evenly, I measured the frame and then decided where I needed to nail the nails into the backside.  I slammed a couple of nails in after that.

Exactly the same distance from both corners

The last thing to do was string beads onto the fishing line.  That was just a personal preference thing for me.  I kind of wish I hadn't done it and left the allusion of a free floating letter but once I had completed the project I didn't want to go back.  Below you can see the finished product.

Lauren is crafty

So now my monogram lives on my front door.  I'm happy with it.  This project is super easy but does take a little time.  I glued the balls at a snails pace while I watched TV at night.  If I had sat down and done it in one swoop it would have only taken a couple of hours at most.  But I didn't.  I took my time.   

If you are interested in this project check out the first blog post:  Christmas Wreath Goodness for the beginning stages.  Also, I can totally make you one of your own.  But you will have to pay me.  Not a lot.  But something.