Warm Golden Christmas Tree

Today, I am sharing more details on my tree and the ornaments that I showed you last week.

I am not using all of my white Christmas decorations, and I had a load of snowflake ornaments. So, that meant I had to come up with some new ornaments that were in keeping with my golden, wood, green, and some dark red theme. I wanted brass or antique gold, natural, organic, earthy. Keeping that in my mind, I headed to the thrift stores.

I have been using white wood bead garland for the past several years. I made new beaded garland strings with light, dark, and gold beads cut from thrift store, beaded seat covers. I colored the gold ones in a plastic bag with a few squirts of Antique Gold Rub-n-Buff. This was my first layer on the tree. 

I used gold, satin ribbon pinched in the middle with a piece of floral wire next. I would have liked to have used gold velvet ribbon, but there was none to be found in my town. I probably should have used one more spool of ribbon, but I only bought one. I was going to add gold tinsel, but decided against it since it is a choking hazard and we will have our 20 month old grandson here for Christmas. I pulled out what ornaments I had that would fit with this year's theme--antique gold pinecones, real pinecones, some dark red bottle brush wreaths, and some glittery gold and glass geodesic ornaments. Then, I set out to make or thrift the rest.

I found vintage, solid brass, 12 Days of Christmas ornaments in their original box made by the International Silver Co. To modernize them a bit and give them an updated look, I add a gold craft ring to them. I found 25 of these at the thrift store for $3. 

I wrapped the gold string the ornaments were hanging from around the metal ring and held it in place with a dot of hot glue, I then tied on a piece of green velvet ribbon and another natural colored ribbon with jute, that I also used to hang the ornament.

I found a bag of decorative, wood fruit at the thrift store. I added an screw eye and a ribbon to hang them. For $3 I got eight ornaments. I didn't use the banana or the wood pea pods, but mostly the spherical fruit, a few pointy ones.

I wanted mushroom ornaments on my tree. I learned from Michael at Inspired by Charm that mushrooms on a Christmas tree symbolize good fortune. I like that, but also their organic nature and I love hunting mushrooms. I decided to make some.

I started with Styrofoam balls and bells from the thrift store. Whenever I need a craft supply, I will always look for it at thrift store or two before buying new. I cut most of the balls in half, but some I cut more at the two-thirds point to create a more puffball type mushroom and then a flatter mushroom.

I used an old sweater of mine that was in the giveaway pile for most of the mushrooms. I also used a piece of gold, felted wool from the craft store. I cut a circle, sewed a running stitch along the edge with embroidery floss, and then pulled it tight around the Styrofoam piece, leaving room for a stem.

I used four different colored threads and tie French knots on the mushroom caps. I also tied a floss hanger for the ornament. A wood branch from the yard was inserted and hot glued to the mushroom cap. I made a dozen mushroom ornaments.

Other ornaments include thrifted clear ornaments that I twirled paint on the inside and used gold leaf on the outside.

I painted some thrift store ornaments yellow, and light and dark green. I then dusted a mixture of cocoa powder and plaster on the wet paint. When they were dry, I dabbed on some Antique Gold Rub-n-Buff.

I found a bag of brass cherubs and other brass figurines for $3 at the thrift store. I tried to hot glue a ribbon to their heads, but it wouldn't hold it. So, I hung up the poor cherubs by their necks with floral wire. You can only see the wire close up, but it cracks me up.

The final layer to my warm, glowing tree was to add gold berry picks to the branches. I got these at Target, 50 picks for $5.

As I said on Friday, I think this is my favorite tree ever. We have plenty of white and cold outside, so I love having the warm, golden colors inside. Think layers when decorating your tree and keep key words in the back of your mind while thrifting. 

A garage sale silver star got the Rub-n-Buff treatment to top the tree. A few other random thrifted ornaments--brown, glass balls, bronze colored deer, and my tree is complete.