Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Bleached Bottlebrush Trees

Botttlebrush Trees

I love the look of vintage holiday decorations and have long wanted some vintage bottlebrush trees. I’m automatically drawn to displays of them in stores. I am not always drawn to their price so once again, I decided I could make my own.  SO easy. Another why didn’t I do this before project.

You will need:
  • Bottlebrush trees. Can be found at hobby and craft stores or where Christmas villages etc are sold. I bought a big bag at JoAnn’s last year for 75% off after Christmas knowing that I wanted to make some this season.
  • Household bleach.
  • Water
  • Container
  • Time
  • Spray adhesive
  • Glitter
I googled around for some hints on how to bleach the trees. All of the instructions were similar: mix equal parts bleach and water in a container; submerge trees, wait. Time is the tricky part and my conclusion is you just have to keep an eye on your trees vs an absolute amount of time. One tree took 15 min. Another the same size took 30. Just bleach until they’re the color you want. I wanted natural but may do some more and stop at pale green. I've seen tutorials where people have dyed them all kinds of colors or used spray inks etc.

Bleached Bottlebrush Trees
Mr. Chocolate only looked at a little oddly when I told him I was bleaching trees. He just doesn’t ask anymore. What’s weird is the color bleaches out but the flocking stays on the trees.
Glittered Bleached Bottlebrush Tree

While the trees were drying from their bleach bath ( rinse with plain water once you get the color you want), I made their bases by wrapping some wood spools with washi tape.

Washi Spools

When the trees were dry, I used a spray adhesive (Elmers) and silver and iridescent glitter. Spray, sprinkle, turn, repeat.  Then hot glued them to my spools.

Natural Bottlebrush Trees


Bleached Bottlebrush Tree Closeup

They’ll likely end up on my mantle but since I’m a diehard about not decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving , I haven’t totally decided yet.

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5 comments:

Mary Palumbo Collings said...

Very cute Carol…

Our Hopeful Home said...

Love how you used the old spools! I never would have thought of that!

Unknown said...

Perfect timing: I just bought some bleach yesterday for my trees, and now I've got your handy how-to! And I love the spool idea - it's perfect!

Miranda @ Someday Crafts said...

Gorgeous little sparkly trees! I love that you have our button on your post and that you shared at Whatever Goes Wednesday :) We'll be featuring this over at Someday Crafts tomorrow!!

Katy @ Lolly Linens said...

Thank you so much! I just bought some trees last night and had no idea how to bleach them.