Yes! It's finally done... my Mushroom/Berry tree! This project has been in the works for weeks, and I'm so happy to be able to share it with you. It all started when Vicky decided to part with her tall skinny "Alpine" tree and offered it to me. Good fortune! It had lights on it, but they seemed too big for it's feeble little branches, so I removed them and rewound the tree with a gazillion tiny seed lights. Once that seemingly endless task was done, it was at last time to decorate. But what would be cute decorations for a woodsy-looking tree???
Well, obviously berries (more about those shortly) and mushrooms of course! I made my shrooms using this tutorial, which I have mentioned before, but I modified it a bit, creating three different sizes and longer stems. Instead of stitching everything, I made liberal use of my glue gun, except for gathering the mushroom cap. Also, I wanted the mushrooms to appear to be "growing" on the branches, so I hot-glued a bent piece of wire into the stem before rolling, leaving the two ends sticking out the bottom. Now the mushrooms could be wired onto the branches! Here they are ready for duty. I poked the wires into a styrofoam ring to let the painted dots dry. Hey, they'd make a cute wreath, wouldn't they?
The finished tree looks absolutely enchanting, but it is really hard to capture in a photograph, because the dining room is very dark and cozy, and the tree is very tall and skinny... just like me! (um... not)
Now, about those berries. At first I thought of using beads, but I wanted them to look like berries, not beads. While pottering about at Joann's, hoping for inspiration, I picked up a bunch of these picks of berry bunches (I had way too much fun writing that) and I thought maybe I could cut the berries off, leaving enough wire to form a hook. But I discovered something much much better...
If you look closely, you'll see they consist of a dozen or so berries on wires, bundled together and wrapped with brown paper. Beginning near the leaf, if you slice down the stem between the wires, they separate from the main stem. Just keep working your way up the main stem, slicing and working out the berry stem wires until they are all free.
When you're done, you end up with... loads of lovely shiny berries with nice long wires!
Now all you do is bend the wire over a pencil to form a loop, and then hang on the tree! Couldn't be easier. And they have other colors besides red. The aqua ones below wound up on my white feather tree. The blue ones ended up on this little guy.
The berries would be fantastic for adding to gift toppers or corsages, too, since the attached wire makes them super easy to work with. And right now, all the craft places have everything on sale so you can cover your tree with these little baubles and not spend a fortune. My favorite idea for the year!
One last peek at my woodsy litte tree before it gets too dark to see...
I absolutely love it. Hey, it's getting cold in here, maybe there should be a fire in that fireplace tonight.
Have a wonderful weekend my friends. Christmas is a week from tomorrow... ack!
Cheers,
Jenny
