My DIY flocked Christmas tree

 

Hello sweet ladies. I must be the last one in all of blogland who is showing off their Christmas decorations. Have you been following along with all the Christmas house tours? My golly what a talent those ladies have. Over here in Songbird land, Christmas has arrived too, but it is an understated Christmas. Easy, relaxed without the fuss, and definitely without the stress of years before. 

I did end up doing a little project though. I couldn’t resist. I made a DIY flocked Christmas tree!

 

 

Now let me say something first. Until say a couple of years ago, I had no idea that such a thing as a flocked Christmas tree existed let alone that one could venture into making one yourself. Over here Christmas trees are always green (just a handful are blazingly white), usually they are real too and there is not a flocked white tree in sight.

Enter the lovely ladies who blog. I think it was Kate aka Centsational girl who first pointed me in the direction of a flocked Christmas tree and how beautiful that is. But it didn’t quite register just yet. And than of course I saw them more and more and I started to really like them. Because, well, they are white!

 

 

And so the idea was put in my mind. 

Enter this years Christmas plans to go slow, easy and doable. Pair that with a recent rearrangement of the furniture in our living room that took away the very spot our tree always occupied and new plans had to be hatched.

I decided to go very small this year. Have myself a little buffet Christmas tree and make my new side cabinet the star of the room. Of course my first thought was to go and buy a real little tree. And then the flocked Christmas tree idea popped up….

And I started to have a vision that looked something like this:

 

 

So off I went to the thrift store and the pharmacy to buy supplies. This is all I needed:

 

A run-down ugly little Christmas tree I almost got for free, a can of shaving foam (I bought three as per instructions only needed one) a couple of small bottles of white glue and some corn starch. 

I took my inspiration from these tutorials: the Christmas tree flock by August Joy Studios and the guide to how to flock a tree by Balsam Hill. Of course I ended up doing it may way anyway, but these tutorials gave me a good starting point.

 

 

In order I took these steps:

1. I decorated my little tree with strings of lights. I used Led Lights because they don’t heat up, and choose lights that are fit to be used outdoors so they are completely watertight. I used green floral tape (al lot of it) to hide the cords as best as I could. This step took the most time.
2. Emptied a can of shaving foam in an old bucket. Since I used foam instead of gel, it came out of the can already whipped and ready to use. In hindsight just emptying out a bit at a time would have been easier. One of those cans was enough to fill a whole bucket, which made mixing more difficult.
3. Add a bottle of glue and a spoon of cornstarch to the top layer of foam, mix it in with gloved hands. I didn’t bother using the mixer. My foam was already whipped and just using my hands went quicker.
4. From the top start spreading the mixture. I found that the ‘one-index-finger’ worked best. Just scoop some foam up, spread it on the branch in dollops, rub it in in places and move on.
5. Repeat step 3 and 4 until done.
6. Let dry for 24 hours.
7. Decorate

 

At first I listened to the instructions, telling me to only apply the foam to the top of the branches and not rub it in. Apparently that would make it more look like real snow. But as I went along I realized that A, this was obviously a very fake tree, that B. I was rubbing shaving cream all over said tree, that C. no one in their right mind would mistake this whole project for anything natural, and that D. it was more important to me that it all looked good instead of real.

So I happily smeared and smudged and put the foam wherever I felt like it, until I liked the look.

Most instructions say to use about a cup of glue for the whole tree. But it started to look so good as I was going along, that I got very afraid that all that foam would just dissolve over night. So I ended up using all tree bottles of the glue mixed in with not even one whole can of shaving foam. Ah well, the tree was still white the next morning, so all was well with the world.

 

 

I really like my little corner of Christmas in the room. It adds just the right amount of atmosphere without it taking over the room.

I also put up an understated bit of Christmas mantle. If I can get the light to cooperate I will show that too. Other than that there are candles in upside down teacups on my hutch again  (from last year), more candles and little lights scattered around the room and I might make a little centerpiece for the table still. But only if I feel like it.

I must admit I am rather enjoying this laid back Christmas approach.

 

 

So how is it going in your part of the world? All decked out yet? Huge tree? More than one tree? Or are you doing it like me, and keeping it simple this year?

plan it

plan it