Festival of Trees: Thumbtack Trees!

I love decorating for Christmas.   I do, however, dread it sometimes.  The thought of pulling all the stuff out, putting it up for a month or so and then taking it all back down can be a bit overwhelming.  But something happens every year where I start pulling things out, I put up the tree and then my decorating FRENZY takes over and I LOVE it.  Does that happen to you?

Anyway, I decided to get a jump start on my decor this year in hopes that my "frenzy" will follow suit. I'm not putting anything out yet but I have started crafting up a storm!  And this year, I want my decor to be all about the trees.  Big trees, little trees and everything in between.  I've come up with a few tree projects that I will be sharing here in the next few posts.... "Landee's Festival of Trees!"  See?  I made a logo and everything!  :)

Let's get started on the first trees I came up with, shall we?

And yeah, I think you saw this coming.  

After checking my stats, I realized that my Thumbtack Vase Fillers have been viewed almost 35,000 times!  Wha??  Yes, they have been alllll over Pinterest.  So, why not make some fun & shiny trees using the same idea?

Here is what you need.... styrofoam cones and thumbtacks.  That's it.

 

Here's how the math broke down:

6" cone= just over 300 tacks
9" cone= just over 400 tacks
12" cone= just over 500 tacks

I ordered my tacks on line at shoplet.com and got them for about 67 cents per 100.  I know dollar stores have them for a dollar for 300 of them but they are usually just the brass color and I wanted silver.  But if you want gold then go for it!

As for putting them together, simply start at the bottom of your cone and make a row of tacks around the base.

Then make another row, slightly overlapping the row below.

Continue until you have covered the entire thing!

Then repeat, repeat and repeat until you've made as many as you want.

I am imagining mine tucked into some garland with some twinkling Christmas lights glistening off of all those shiny tacks!

Other options: spray paint them whatever colors you'd like or put them up on candle sticks for some elevation.  Pair them with some thumbtack balls and then you'll really be on to something! :)

PS Do you want to participate in my "Festival of Trees?"  If you have a post you've done this year or even one from last year where you craft some fabulous trees ( of ANY kind) I'd love to post it for my other readers (and me) to see!!   Email me if you're interested!  landeeseelandeedo@gmail.com





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