shabby trees; a tutorial

hello friends! first of all, let me just say, THIS is the kind of gardening i can totally get into! i'm miss lynn, from create*breathe and i am so very pleased to be here with you! i love visiting the creative patch, and am grateful the girls asked me to share a little pretty!


the shabby trees project i'm sharing today can be constructed with supplies you most likely have on hand. as i was digging through my stash, i came across a copy of A Christmas Carol (totally my favorite Christmas story next to the one from Scripture) and was inspired to use it for my tree theme.


the tree of Christmas Past...


the tree of Christmas Present,


and the tree of Christmas Future.


each tree uses an empty cone shaped spool for its base.

the tree of Christmas Past, is covered in vintage crotchet lace.


i painted the spool an old fashioned pink and wrapped a layer of lace around the spool once and adhered it with hot glue. then i worked my way up till i was finished.


for a pretty garland to trim the tree, i used a strand of tatted loopies. ohmygoodness, don't you just love this stuff?!

i used white buttons and fake pearl beads for ornaments.


the topper is a teeny tiny frozen charlotte with pink foil angel wings. (i bought the wings from heather's shop years ago!) i stuck a glob of hot glue on the top of tree and added some shredded paper for extra shabbiness.


i covered a toilet paper roll with pages from the book, dipped the edge in glue and glitter, and set the tree upon the trunk. i liked the height it gave the tree.


the tree of Christmas Present used four yards of crepe paper.


cutting the paper into 18 inch strips, i folded the strip in half - the long skinny way - and stitched a basting stitch near the fold. then i was able to gather the paper and glue the strips right onto the spool. i used hot glue for instant adhesion.


the tree topper, vintage bingo pieces (2011 - get it?) glued onto a paper covered poker chip, are resting on crinkled paper. i used a phrase from the book, "my life upon this globe is very brief." (isn't that the truth?!?)


the trunk for this tree is also a toilet paper roll, i just shortened it so that the heights of each tree would be different.


and finally, the tree of Christmas Future, is created from one inch by two inch strips cut from the book. after each strip was glued onto the spool, i covered it with mod podge and glittered her up!


the tree topper is a vintage photo of an adorable baby named gladys. (or so it says on the back) she is adorned with wings cut from craft paper and glittered. i happened to have a piece of silver tinsel on my table that worked perfectly for the "nest".


and there you have it! three shabby trees for your holiday crafting and decorating!


thank you for letting me share a little ditty at the patch, friends! merry Christmas, and so, as tiny tim observed, "God bless us all, every one!"