Decorating a Christmas Tree

This is Post #2 in the blog series 'A Handmade Christmas'. To read Post #1, please visit here, to read Post #3 visit here.

Welcome to the post of a million pictures. A million pictures of decorated Christmas Trees. Well, okay, it's just one tree...MY tree! And this post is chock full 'o pics, because after a week of hot-glueing, spray-painting, ribbon-tying, and other assorted calisthenics to pull this badboy off, I have major ants-in-the-pants waiting to show you what I've done.
 (I imagine little ants in santa hats when I say that. Don't judge.)

 Remember in last week's post where I told you I was attempting to pull-off a Handmade Christmas?
Well, I think I may have just gone and done it.

Operation Christmas Tree = MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

If I had things my way, Tom Cruise would fly by in a jet and high five me.
 (Top-Gun-Tom-Cruise, not 2012-Tom-Cruise.)

I consider this mission a total success because I re-purposed and handmade nearly 200 Christmas ornaments for my tree. In all truth, I lost count about 5 days into the decorating process. It could be 300 ornaments. That could also be grossly exaggerated and it could be 85. I digress.
Before I show you some of the more detailed shots of up-close ornament business, let me show you some of the entire tree and how it looks in the living room.

I wanted my Christmas tree to be a mix of elegant and rustic, as I thought that would best compliment the style of our house. I also wanted the color scheme to be neutral.
 Neutral is my favorite color, after all. (See further proof here). 

And of course, since I love white, I decided to incorporate that into the tree, too.

 (Please ignore the bare, rug-less floor. My old shag rug was not good for the allergies or vacuum-able, so I'm going bare...for now. And if you're wondering, I ended up keeping my handstand rug in the bedroom.) 

As for using white in the tree...rather than a traditional tree topper, I decided to use some of the white satin ribbon (I got 50 yards of it for a dollar at the thrift store, remember?) and make a giant bow for the top of the tree.

It turned out to be my favorite part of the tree.

I also wove the ribbon throughout the entire tree to fill in between the branches, and give the tree a little extra pizzazz!

I've never used ribbon in a tree before, but I swear to you, it made the biggest difference! I don't think I'll ever go back!

Here's a picture from Day 1 of Christmas Tree Decorating
 (also known as 'How to annoy your husband on Thanksgiving Day by asking him to assemble your tree').This is when I first started to weave the ribbon through the entire tree. You can tell it's Day 1 simply by how excited I look.

I was only about 15 ornaments deep at the time that photo was taken, and had the energy of a squirrel running after a nut. Also, I recommend adding the ribbon before you hang any ornaments. I had already added a few ornaments before I thought about adding the ribbon.
Thank goodness I remembered around ornament #15 and not ornament #300. Phew.

I found the trick to the ribbon was to kind of twist it around in circles as you go. I also anchored it with little twist ties every so often because I have two roommates who's sole mission in life is to eat my tree.

The tree really disturbs them, and they do not hesitate to share their feelings. The first night I tried to photograph the tree, SOMETHING kept getting in my way.

I present the jury with Exhibit A: Tootie

and Exhibit B: Cheese.

To translate, that look on Cheese's face means 'I see what you're doing here, and I don't like it.'.

But that's okay. If they eat my tree, the world will continue to turn.

If you missed this post, let me tell you a little secret about this tree: I found it for a mere $40 at a thrift store. It was a 6.5 ft. pre-lit tree, still new in a box. I literally charged over to it at the the store like a stampeding bull, and laid my body across it until I called someone over to help me cram it in my car. 

My previous tree was 4 feet tall, rivaled Charlie Brown's tree, and I was in desperate need of an upgrade. Also, I have an irrational fear of creepy-crawlies-in-live-trees, and I had zero desire to spend $400 on a tree at Target.
(Sidenote: I know that 99% of the population loves live trees. I get it. I think they're beautiful, too. It's just not a good solution for me at this junction in life. I just get a little squirmy thinking about spending $75 on something that only lasts a month. Plus, fires and spiders freak me out.)

The $40 thrift store tree seemed like the perfect solution.

So, the tree found itself a new home.

If I do say so myself, I think Mr. Tree found himself a very loving home. :)

So, now that you've seen the tree, let's get up close and personal and peek at some of the ornaments I created.

 Please make sure and stop by the blog tomorrow for post #3 in this series, 

A Handmade Christmas: DIY Ornaments, where I will go into detail about how to make all of the ornaments I created for my tree.

Being the frugal gal I am, I didn't want to spent a lot of money on tree decor. I gave myself a budget of $15 and I stuck to it. You thought I was kidding in that last post, didn't you?
In order to do that, I re-purposed tons of thrift store finds and handmade some ornaments completely from scratch.

Remember these thrift store scores?

It cost me a total of $3 for two boxes of brass ornaments and a bag of pinecones.

I turned the brass ornaments into a bunch of different things. 

I transformed some of them into mercury glass-like ornaments with the help of some silver rub-n-buff.

I also turned a bunch into high-gloss shiny white ornaments using Rustoleum white high gloss spray paint.

See the glass bead ornaments hanging behind the pinecone? I made those from dollar store rocks glued to ribbon!!

I turned the rest of the brass ornaments into half-sequined disco balls!

You can also see one of them in action in the picture below. (full disco-ball tutorial here)

See all the straw balls in the above picture? I raided some of my vase filler and hung them all in the tree with some fancy hooks. I painted a few of them white so that they would 'pop' more.

I seriously LOVE the way they look in my tree. This big wooden-ball in the below picture was also part of my 'vase filler mix'. It didn't have anywhere to stick a hook, so instead I hot-glued a little pearl on top of a ribbon loop.

I loved the idea of mixing natural elements with all of the gold and silver ornaments. I used about 30 pine cones in the tree. I left some plain. I painted some white. I painted some silver. I added pearls to some.

The one below got silvered and pearled. I threaded some of the hubby's fishing line through the pearl to use as a hanger.

And then I made a few really fancy ones that I coated in glitter, beads, and sequins....and then added a chandelier crystal hanging from the bottom. (glittery pinecone tutorial will be in post 3 of this series)

Keeping with the theme of nature, I added some random plant stems to the tree. I consider a fluffy-cotton-ball-like-faux-plant to be random, don't you? (I originally found those at Target.)

The plant stems used to be in a big vase in the bedroom, but I decided I wanted them in the tree, so I cut them up. I also used a few fuzzy twigs. I love how they look.

You've probably also noticed tons of glittery stars and reindeer. I got those all at Walgreen's last year. They had packages for 10 ornaments for $2.50. Can't beat that. I've seen them again this year at both Walgreen's and The Dollar Tree. 

Are you still with me? I told you I made hundreds of ornaments. Bet you thought I was just pullin' your leg. 

I also made some mirror ornaments. You know those little bags of teeny mirrors they sell at craft stores? I glued some together on posterboard and then stuck a hook in the top. 

I made all different shapes and sizes of the mirror ornaments. I made some using the square mirrors.

And some using the round mirrors.

In other ornament news, you may recall from my last post that I found this crystal ball ornament for 99 cents at a thrift store.

 Well, it looks amazing on the tree. I really think it's my favorite ornament this year. It really reflects all of the lights so beautifully.

I really think it's kinda the show-stopper on the tree.

But that wasn't the only thrift store beauty that made it onto the tree AS-IS. Remember the little jingle bell napkin rings?

Well, I simply tied some ribbon to them and hung them in the tree. They look so pretty!

Oh, and that big pearl dangler came from Hobby Lobby last year for about $2. I also added a couple of tubes of glittery balls that I got at The Dollar Store. There was like 12 to a $1 tube. Oh, dollar store.

Where's Waldo moment: Do you see the cat ornament in the background? My mother-in-law gifted me two ornaments several years ago, one for Tootie and one for Cheese.
Handsdown, they are my favorite ornaments. :)

Can you see the resemblance?

Teehee. Gets me every time.

Well, I think that's a great place to end this post. Thank you for stopping by and sharing my Christmas tree with me! It's been so much hard work, but I'm so grateful. I cannot even begin to express how wonderful it's been to decorate the tree this year, knowing that I have all of my readers to share it with. Ya'll have made this holiday season all the more special to me. Thank you for that!!

(Also, I would love for you to come get to know me better. I just recently rewrote my 'About Me', writing it from the heart this time. I'd love for you to come read. You can click here.)

Also, don't forget to stop by tomorrow 

to see the behind-the-scenes tour in Post #3 (click here) of a Handmade Christmas: DIY Ornaments. 

I'll show you how I made all of the ornaments, and maybe even show you a few ornaments I didn't share today! 

Thanks again for stopping by! Have you made any handmade ornaments this year for your tree? I'd love to hear your ideas!

P.S. Have you seen what I did with my leftover ornaments? 

Check out my ornament wreath by clicking here.

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