Hey Flockers, Don't you just love all things shiny, bright, and vintage? I have always loved vintage Christmas ornaments, there is just something about the way they sparkle under the lights of the tree. When I ran across these topiary trees a few years back made from vintage ornaments, I knew one or two needed to be in my life. After seeing a few in person and online I figured they could be done for a pretty reasonable price. Every time I run across bags of vintage ornaments at the thrift store I pick them up to use for different projects. I have a pretty good stock pile built up. You can normally find them for a pretty great price. Just this weekend I picked up five gallon sized zip-lock bags full for .95 cents each. So check out the supply list for this project and go hit up your local thrift so we can get your tree done.
Supplies...
Most Items needed can be found at your local thrift.
Styrofoam Cone ( You Can Use Any Size. )
Silver Tinsel Garland ( Fluffy Works Better )
Lots of small and medium ornament balls ( Glass or Plastic, I use Both. )
A few Wooden or plastic ornaments.
Floral Pins ( Buy the large bag )
Container to sit tree in. You can use any kind you would like, I used a vintage Santa pitcher for one and a Candle holder for the other.
Step One- Covering your cone...
Take your silver tinsel and wrap it around the floral pin and push it in to the Styrofoam cone at the bottom. Once you have it started go about 2" around the cone and add another pin, this will help to keep your tinsel in place. Keep doing this until you have reached the top of the cone. When you reach the top of your cone you will want to put your pins in at an angle so they go towards the bottom of the cone rather than thru to the other side the cone. Once you have covered your entire cone you will have your silver tree shaped base, as shown below.
Step 2- Adding your Ornaments...
Take a floral pin and slide it thru the loop of your ball. You can add more than one ball to each floral pin. I like to start by using one ball at a time to kind get a placement worked out in my head. At this point you can add a little hot glue to your pin if you want it to be permanent. Just take your pin with the ball on it and start to push them in to your cone. Continue to do this until just about your whole cone is covered. If you have a few areas of silver still showing that is ok.
Below is the fully covered cone. You can see that I also used other shapes like bells and stars. With the bells and stars I added them in to any open areas the balls didn't cover. It not only covers any open space it also adds a little more depth. You can see that on my larger tree I also added a few larger ornaments that aren't balls to give it some variety in the shapes.
Step 3- Your Topper...
This step is easy and a place where you can add that special something. Your tree topper can be anything you want it to be. On one of mine I used a cute little flocked angel ornament and on this one I used a cute little knee huger pixie. A finial or a star would also be great as a topper. You can either glue it to the top or pin it into place. My angel is glued on while the pixie is pined in.
Step 4- A fun Base...
You can use anything for your base. To be honest I forgot to buy anything for the base of this one so I looked around the house for something that was the right size. Luckily I had this candle holder in a closet. The vintage Santa pitcher I used for the other was found at a local thrift. Side note I buy all Santa pitchers and mugs I find, and Yes I get in trouble but I still do it.
A cute table top topiary for the cheap cheap...
I think that for this whole project I might have spent $10.00. I would say that for the money you should just make several of them and have a whole forest of shinny trees. Go get your stuff and make as many as your heart desires and share them with me so I can live through you, lol. Hope I made this easy for you to understand, but If you have any questions just message me or leave a comment and I will help you out. Thanks for stopping by the Kingdom today!