Friday, December 5, 2008

Sprucing up your Christmas tree...

I have a 7' tall pretend Christmas tree. It is almost as old as my youngest son, Jeff, who is now 22 (or 23, I just can't keep up!). It was one of the first pencil trees and it's skinnier than any that are on the market these days.

Our house is not that big and I don't want a bigger tree, but truly this tree has seen better days. Two years ago I decided that it needed a bath so I took the hose to it figuring that if it fell apart, it was a sign from above to move on. It didn't fall apart.

Last year I decided that it needed more than another bath - it needed updating. I bought 2 cans of lime green spray paint thinking that I would change the color of the tree to lime green. I was amazed at how the paint seemed to soak into the tree. Instead of being lime green, it has lime green highlights. That just wasn't enough of an update.


I got a can or two of spray glue and some coarse green glitter. I sprayed the tree in sections with the glue and sprinkled it liberally with glitter.


It's way cute and a cheap upgrade! This year, when the tree came out of the box (after having spent another year in the attic) I hit it again with spray glue and glitter because I like things sparkly.



If you do this here are some tips:
  1. It makes a mess so I did this outside, over a plastic drop cloth. 
  2. Be careful where/how you shake the glitter off the drop cloth. I think I'm going to have glitter in the sand around the rocks in my patio for a very long time.
  3. Carry the tree inside carefully. Some glitter is going to drop off the tree as it is jostled.
  4. Concentrate the glitter on the outer parts of the tree, but don't forget the undersides of the branches. My tree comes apart in sections which makes it easier to do the undersides of the branches (turning the whole tree upside-down would be hard).
  5. A word of caution - my tree is not pre-strung with lights. I don't know if getting glue and glitter on the lights would be a fire hazard but I don't know that I would do it.
Once you start playing with the glitter it's hard to stop. Wreaths, candles, all kinds of things could look better with glitter! 

Becky

2 comments:

Debbie said...

You must be one in a million, what a good idea! We bought a new tree last year because I felt mine was too dusty and too big. I never thought of "giving it a shower"!

Carrie P. said...

That tree just was not ready for the junk pile. Great ideas.