As you know, we love Christmas all year round here on Hallmark, and I love getting prepared for Christmas early…plus I love the “rustic” style of décor, so using outdoor elements and imperfect wood is the best recipe for a rustic, wood slice Christmas tree! If you do DIY’s the months leading up to Christmas, all you have to do is buy your presents and you are good to go!  All of your decorations will already be done!  Sounds like a win-win to me.  School is winding down for Summer, and it’s always fun to get the kids involved, and this is a PERFECT DIY for kids.  There’s no set rules with the colors of glitter, so they can have as much fun as they’d like decorating these adorable mini-Christmas trees made out of wood slices. Here is how to get started!

You Will Need:

• Hot glue gun/glue sticks
• Small oval craft wood rounds
• Glitter in a variety of colors
• Mod podge
• Floral pins/floral pins
• Small round wood slices (1.5” – 2”)
• Large wood rounds (8”)
• Wood stars (in a variety of sizes)
• Floral foam cones (in a variety of sizes – I got 14”, 17” and 23”)
• Foam brush for Mod Podge
• Plastic up (or deli cup) for glitter

How-To:

1. Decide what glitter color you would like your trees to be. You can mix and match on the same tree, or make each tree a separate color.
2. Taking your oval slices and foam brush, gently brush on mod podge to the bottom of the oval slice. Immediately dip it into the glitter.  Set aside to dry.  Continue this with all of your slices.  If you don’t know how many you will need, you could do each slice as you go…add mod podge, glitter and then apply directly to the tree.  If doing this method, you will glitter at the beginning of step 6 below.
3. Set up your floral foam cones by removing them from their plastic covering and set on a flat surface.
4. Take your small ROUND wood slices and glue several together. This will be the “trunk” of your tree.
5. Using hot glue on a low setting, glue the trunk to the bottom of the floral cone.
6. Take your oval craft rounds and start adding them with hot glue (and/or floral pins) to the bottom of your tree. Since your trunk pushes up your floral cone, you are able to hang the bottom row of oval slices off the bottom a little, hiding the floral cone.
7. After one row is completed all the way around, start your second row placing the oval slice in between the slice a row below it. Do this so it sits about half way down on the row below.
8. Continue this method until you get just a couple inches from the top.
9. Paint or mod podge and glitter your wood star and set aside to dry. (If you bought wood stars that are already painted, you can skip this step.)

• Add the wood star to the top of the tree. If your stars came on a stick, push the stick down through the top until the star is on the top of the tree.
• If your star doesn’t have a stick, then finish your rows of ovals and add the star with hot glue on the top.
• Set up your tree(s) on the large wood slices and enjoy!

 Tips:

1. If you don’t know how many wood slices you will need, you could do each slice as you go…add mod podge, glitter and then apply directly to the tree.If doing this method, you will glitter at the beginning of step 6.
2. You can add any color of glitter to this tree…have it match your style or have the kids choose…there are no wrong colors or combination of colors!
3. Why use the low setting on your hot glue gun? Because we are dealing with foam, a very hot temperature of glue with disintegrate the foam.  A low setting is gentler and will not cause damage (also good if the kids are helping – safety first!)
4. Do you have to make the trunk with smaller rounds? Could you leave the trunk out? You definitely can and have them sit directly on the table, but you will see the floral foam through the bottom layer.  If you do that, I suggest painting (or adding glitter) the foam that you can see between the oval slices to mask the foam.

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