Gosh, I wish I'd photographed this tree against a RED background! Oh well!
I made these branch Christmas trees last year as gifts. I was very happy with how they came out and they were totally FREE to make -- until I decided to add the jute bows ($2 for a huge roll of jute string) and remembered that I needed dowels to string the branches on (50 cents per tree).
I raided a neighbor's branch pile. Cut the branches down to manageable lengths and trimmed to twigs off. Then I fired up the mitre saw and cut the branches to even numbered lengths from 22" to 2". I drilled a hole through the middle of each branch. I cut a 4" length of a small log to make the base and drilled a hole in the center of the top surface of it. I inserted a length of dowel rod into the base, threaded the branch sections onto the dowel from largest to smallest, and trimmed the extra dowel off at the top with some wire cutters. Lastly, I spread out all the branches. And VOILA! Trees!
I also made salt dough ornaments for the trees -- little red hearts which I tied on with red string to extend the trees into Valentine's day for those of us who are slow to put away the decorations! Hmmm... I could hang shamrock ornaments on it for St. Patrick's Day and Easter eggs for Easter and sun glasses for Memorial Day and little flags for the 4th of July and hot dogs for Labor Day and plastic spiders for Halloween and turkeys for Thanksgiving and just NEVER put it away!... Don't you just love it when I get carried away with myself?
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