Lola & Bea: Dollar Tree

Yesterday while driving home from the Signed Sealed Delivered Annex store warehouse sale I stopped off at the Dollar Tree store to see what goodie I could find for fall decorating. I thought I might find some foam tree forms but they only had foam wreaths. Then I spied these...

A tinsel tree. They have them in several colors at the Dollar Tree. The shape was right, and at one dollar, the price was really right. The frame is made of plastic and not foam so I would be able to remove the tinsel without destroying the frame.

I began removing all the tinsel, which was really easy. It just popped right off in one big piece. I can even reuse it someday if I need to.

With the tinsel removed, you are left with a very nice little plastic frame.

To hold the frame together I used some twine. I tied four pieces of twine to keep it from spreading apart. You could use wire or twist ties or even fabric. I had twine on hand so I used it.

Next, I cut a circle the same size as the bottom of the frame. I just used some old cardboard I had from a box of paper. Then I stuffed the form with some old newspaper.

Then using my gle gun I glued the cardboard circle to the bottom of the stuffed frame.

I will be using this tree for two seasons this year so I decided to make the tree out of burlap scraps I already had on hand from other projects. I cut the burlap in 2 or 3 " strips and about 24" long.

Then I cut some slits in the burlap about every 1" or so. Towards the top of the tree, I cut the slits closer together.

I rolled the ends of the slit burlap with a pencil to give the tree a more dimensional looks. I found that if I got the burlap damp it was easier to roll and teh curls stayed put.

The next step is to glue the slit burlap strips to the frame. I cut off the excess burlap and set it aside to be used for a smaller layer later. I used one strip for each layer until I got closer to the top then I was able to wrap the strip for a couple of layers. In addition, when I got about 3/4 way done I cut my strips about a 1/2" deep. This made it easy to wrap around the short distance. I also squeezed the burlap to the frame being careful not to burn myself. The shape looked nicer when I did this.

Towards the top, I cut a few small pieces of burlap about 1/2" by 2" and glued them on top of the tree to cover the peak of the frame. Then I wrapped and glued a couple more layers of burlap strips, squeezed them to the frame, and it was done