A Vintage Tinsel Tree for Any Holiday

 

My Sweet Heart Valentine Tinsel Tree

The Twelve Days of Christmas Tinsel Tree

During the Christmas holidays my sisters found the most adorable mini tinsel Christmas trees by Department 56. That tree sighting, of course, got my wheels turning. How could I make a tinsel tree of my very own? 






Enter Martha Stewart and her Table Top Tinsel Tree Project

*warning....I did find Miss Martha's instructions on how to make the tree a little confusing. I will try to supplement with information I discovered the best I can.

I began with a pot which I filled with floral foam, then filled in the cracked with spray insulation foam (the kind you can buy in a spray can at Lowes or Home Depot for about $3) and inserted a wooden dowel. My dowel stood 20" above the rim of my pot. By the way, you are going to want to use a nice heavy pot or fill the bottom with rocks. You don't want your tree tipping over once its ornament time.

my favorite part of this picture is the empty bowl of cereal. Just keeping it real folks.

Now, I didn't want to do my tree green like Martha's. I wanted a vintage looking silver tinsel tree. You can find a huge package of silver tinsel pipe cleaners at the crafts store for $5. After I had bent the wires, the tinsel wrapped portion of the wires measured 2 3/4" , 3 1/2", 4 1/2", 5 1/2", and 6 1/2" in length. Martha's measurements may be a little different on her tree.

My rows of branches were about 4 1/2" apart.
I chose to wrap my tree trunk with tinsel instead. Just get your glue gun ready and wrap, wrap, wrap.

I was quite pleased with my tree but it looked just a little too new. So, before I could proclaim "IT IS FINISHED!" I gave it a light dusting of metallic gold spray paint and..... TA-DA!