O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree, how are you so tiny?

     So here is my story... My mom had made me an adorable tree, along with other sweet little Holiday decorations, but through the move cross-country and after years of storage, the tree didn't quite have the "in-all-her-glory" look that a tree celebrating Christ's birth should look, if you know what I mean. (Crushed. It was crushed into bits in case you didn't know what I mean.)   
     Poor little thing, it just broke my heart.  So, I set out to find a replacement that I could salvage the ornaments from my original on, and thought I would have great success (I swear I have seen little trees for the Christmas villages in the stores.)  Wrongo: I found nada.  That's when I decided that I would make my own tree (which actually thrilled me!)

    Here is my process, with a couple of pictures.  I was winging it, so forgive me if it seems a bit scattered:

This is what I used for my branches. Available at Michaels or AC Moore.

      The supplies: Garland, (see above), wooden dowel cut to the proper height for my house (not sure the exact size diameter, but the same as a pencil and short enough to put a base and a star without scraping the ceilings), super de-duper glue (warning, your fingers will not be your biggest fan after this project), scissors that can cut through wire and that you have no sentimental attachment to), and finally the patience of Job, lol.

     I then wrapped the dowel with a layer of the garland. I just twisted it all around it to cover the dowel, but left some of the wood exposed so I would have a place to glue my branches onto (I have a picture below that explains what I mean.)

     Then I started cutting different lengths.  I have a total of 80 branches on my tree. Yup. I like 'em full and fluffy!

Cut the garland into the appropriate tree branch size.
Smaller branches at the top and longer branches at the bottom.
I used a photo of a real tree to eyeball what my little guy was supposed to look like. 

This is the picture that shows what my dowel looked like as I was putting on the branches. 

     I literally eyeballed my branch lengths and placement as I went along.  A tip for the weary: put the glue on the branch, and then the branch on the dowel... saves you a lot of heart ache.

     For my base, I used some scrap poly clay, made a good mound, stuck the bottom of my dowel in and added a weight (mine happens to be a chucky cheese token... oh how mad my Real Life Little would be if she knew!!) :0)

Yes, that is a piece of garland permanently bonded to my finger. It is still there. J/K!

     Bake according to clay directions, but note that you will have to scrape the hole a bit after it comes out of the oven to fit your dowel again.  I waited until I was completely done with my tree before I glued it into my base. I did this so I could better maneuver the tree while putting my garlands and ornaments on (you'll see them in my next post.)

    The skirt is a piece of felt cut (I used a CD for a pattern, perfect size!), with some pretty lace and satin ribbon to trim.  To get the skirt to lay flat, I used my hot embossing tool to warm the felt and stretch it over my base (after I glued the skirt to the base.)  Be warned, the heat of this tool will burn BURN the felt, so use very sparingly.   A little heat, a little stretch and mold, a little heat, a little stretch and mold...

And there she is! A beautiful little tree (I just placed the presents there to get an idea) just waiting for her trimmings.  :0) Stay tuned! They'll be my next post...