I Love Christmas Trees

I owe my love affair with Christmas trees to my mom. She has boxes and boxes of ornaments in the garage rafters, each for a different themed tree. I love her macaroni angels and clothes-pin toy soldiers. My very favorite tree theme is all silver - silver bows, silver balls, snowflakes, glass raindrops, silver beads, and most importantly, the set of silver bells my Grandpa Craig sent one by one over the course of many years.

I am still working on building my first themed tree, and I like to add a few homemade elements each year. Last year, I made the silver bows using wire ribbon - they are so easy to make and really fill out a tree. I also swapped out the metal hooks on all my ornaments for some pretty silver and white ribbon.


This year, I decorated a few of the ornament balls, but was a burned out from my hot glue gun and paint pens after making my mom's set. Hopefully I'll make more for myself next year.





I did make a set pine cone ornaments. I bought the pine cones at my favorite local arts and crafts store. The pine cones conveniently had holes drilled in the tops - perfect for the hooks. Make a small loop with flexible wire, leaving some length on one end to twist into a tail. Insert the tail into the hole at the top of the pine cone and fill with hot glue to seal. Thread ribbon through the wire hoop and tie. The pine cones look great plain, but I chose to cover mine with silvery glitter for some extra sparkle.

Finally, I bought a plain star from the craft store and covered it with the same silver glitter.


That should do it for this year's decorations, and I am really pleased with my tree. Buns is a little bewildered by it though.


Next year's project - a homemade tree skirt!