It's Christmas Time!!!!!

It's the most wonderful time of the year....(In my smoothest Andy Williams voice). Christmas is indeed my favorite holiday. So, it's only fitting that I do a Christmas project. Last year I made an Ornament wreathe. (Check it out here if you haven't already). This year I was thinking something a little more artsy. The wheels began turning, and I decided to make my very own mini Christmas tree. A tree with all different patterns. I got the idea when I volunteered to help with the White Elephant party at work. I was in charge of the gift exchange and thus assigning the gifting order. I tried to think of a cool way to do it other than throwing folded up pieces of paper in a basket. I was already thinking of doing a Christmas project, so this could be a way to kill 2 birds with one stone.

Now I know I should, but I'm not even going to try to explain what is going to happen because it would make absolutely no sense. So, I'm just going to get right into it. The tree is made up of 5 tiers. The largest being 24" wide and the top one being 4" wide. I cut out 10 circles. 2 circles for each tier.

To make each tier I placed the larger of the 2 circles down, glued down some spacers, and then added the second circle to the top. 

I probably could have started the paper mache here, but I wanted to add more structure to the sides. I cut large pieces of poster board and hot glued them to the edges.

I added the poster board all the way around until I got the full shape. 

For the top piece, I took my smallest circle and used the poster board to create a cone shape.

Not at all pretty, but it didn't have to be because it was just the structure layer. It wasn't hard, but definitely time consuming. Somewhere in mid construction I had one of those *What is really happening* moments. What am I really doing right now? Am I really sitting here building a tree? Why can't I be one of those normal people who buys things from the very extensive holiday section at Hobby Lobby (that has been out since September)... Noooo I have to be the one who buys craft supplies so I can make my own holiday decor. Sometimes I just shake my head at myself.

I continued until I completed all 5 tiers.

So for those of you that still can't see it. This is the basic shape and look of what I'm going for.

Is it starting to make sense now? How many of you just went "OHHHHHH"? Once the shape was done it was time to move on to the Paper Mache. The poster board just helped create the shape. The Paper Mache will actually harden it and give a proper surface for painting. 

1st Layer - I concocted a mixture of flour, water, and glue. For the paper I used small torn up pieces of brown Kraft Paper. I let the layer dry completely before moving on to the next. It's best to apply thin layers and let the Paper Mache dry fully or you could end up with mold.

2nd Layer -  I mixed a new paste mixture of just glue and water to create more of a smooth shellac like surface. I also used bigger pieces of paper to do a little reshaping. Even though I applied the poster board first, the layer of paper still got a little wrinkled and misshapen once it dried so it needed a little repairing. 

3rd Layer - This time I used even larger pieces to create extra smoothness and decrease the amount of paper edge lines. I let all of the pieces dry for 24 hours. After that it was definitely looking nice.

I must say I was feeling quite accomplished with what I had done so far. I definitely wasn't sure how this would turn out when I was imagining it in my head, so I was pleasantly surprised when it started coming together. I brought the pieces in the garage and sprayed them with a thin layer of primer. 

Now it was time to paint. I picked up 3 large bottles of red, green, and a lighter green acrylic paint.

The design of the tree I had already thought about. I sketched out a few rough ideas first before starting. I was going for an eclectic look, so each layer would have a different design. There was no rhyme or reason I just did designs that I thought would compliment each other. I started with the top and worked my way down.

The first piece I painted the whole thing green, and layered it with red polka dots. The second tier down got stripes.

3rd tier

4th tier

Bottom tier

 When it was all said and done, this is what they all looked like together. 

I stood back and marveled at my creation. I was quite in love with it by this point. I couldn't marvel for too long though because I wasn't finished yet. No tree is complete without a trunk. 

I actually had all of the pieces I needed in my craft stash already. I cut a small circle out of matboard, and a larger circle out of foam board. The tube I cut from a large mailing tube I had in the closet. I glued the tube down to the smaller circle.

Then I covered the trunk in brown paper. I was going to just use regular brown scrapbook paper, but then I saw this bark textured paper at Michaels for $1 and couldn't pass it up.

For the bottom, I hot glued the 2 half circles of foam board together and made a hole in the middle for the trunk to sit into.

So now to put the whole thing together. I glued the 5 tiers together, then glued the trunk piece to the underside of the tree, 

and set the whole thing inside the bottom piece.

For the final touch it needed a "skirt". I grabbed some extra red fabric from the fabric bin, wrapped it around the bottom piece, and then tied it together with a green ribbon to secure.

And that's it. My very first mini Christmas tree.

I am absolutely in love with it! It's sooooo much better than I could have imagined. I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into as I discussed this out with my best friend Fatima. Well really I talked it through out loud to myself, and she listened pretending to understand exactly what I was thinking. As for the White Elephant Party, it was a total hit! People loved the tree. For the numbers I was going to make ornaments and stick them on the tree, but then I didn't want to mess up my paint job. So instead I made little mini presents and put the numbers inside of them for people to take. The funniest part was that there was quite a bit of talk about what the outside was made of. Apparently people found it hard to believe that I painted it. Someone thought it was duct tape, someone else thought it was wrapping paper. WHAT?! Wrapping paper? Those people obviously don't know how I roll.

 I'm kind of thinking of doing a mini tree every year. When I first got my tree last year, I wanted to do a themed something. I was originally thinking a tree, but that could get expensive every year. Besides I always grew up with an eclectic tree, so that's what I like. Then I thought what about a themed wreath. That was the plan until I thought about this. I think it could be fun and I could express my creativity each year. The possibilities are endless. What do you think? I could make a new one and then sell the one from the previous year. Or just keep them all and make my very own Christmas Forest! We'll see. For right now I'm content reveling in my fun new decoration. So with that...it's on to the next project! Can you believe Christmas is next week? I guess I better get moving.