Friday, November 18, 2011

Making A Family Photo Tree...


I was lost on what to get my grandma for her birthday this year... since it is so close to Christmas I decided to make her a family photo Christmas tree.

My grandparents used to deck the halls every Christmas season from top to bottom. We always had an adult tree in the living room and a kids tree in the family room. For years my entire family would gather at my grandparents on Christmas Eve and stay the night to wake up the next day to celebrate Christmas morning. Over the years, as our family grew larger we outgrew my grandparents house. My grandparents stopped decking the halls from top to bottom and no longer put up the two trees.
We now celebrate the Christmas holiday at my house. My grandparents were nice enough to hand me down a lot of their old outdoor Christmas decor that they had handmade throughout the years when I asked them for it and I absolutely cherish it all.

I decided to make the tree because I wanted to give them something back in return, that they could enjoy throughout the Christmas season.


I used a wood M cutout for their last name and peacock feathers as a topper. The peacock feathers reminded me of the farm.


I purchased a 4' tree at Family Dollar, it was on sale for $10, and a box of 100 lights. I then picked up flocking in a can to add to the tree. I LOVE flocked trees. I stopped at my local art supply store and found burlap on sale for only $2 a yard and a yard was plenty. I cut the burlap into 3 - 4" strips and wrapped it around the tree like garland. I also added some country lace as garland.


I used scrapbooking paper, scrapbooking scissors and tags to create the frames for my photos.


Tacky Glue was the best thing for me to use to glue the paper pieces and photos together, although you don't want to use a lot of glue, a little goes a long way..


After I got all my pieces glued together I then coated them with Mod Podge using a sponge brush. This will seal all the pieces together and give it a texture.


I punched holes in the top of my paper frames with a hole punch and then threaded twine through to create a loop, then tied in a knot.


This is how they turned out. I made about 25-30 of them and that seemed to be enough to cover the 4' tree.


This was a pretty inexpensive project and I had a lot of fun making it... it brought back lots of family memories. <3







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