Hello all you crafty people! Carolyn Wainscott here.
Have you seen those beautiful Christmas trees converted from a mannequin and tree branches? I began seeing them before Christmas last year on Facebook and fell in love with the idea, but it was too close to Christmas. It would also have been a bit more involved than I wanted to get into, so I filed the idea away on my bucket list. (If I get everything on that bucket list done, I will have to live to be 400 years old because it keeps getting longer as the days go by.)
Now is the time to make my mannequin Christmas tree. It just so happened that I have a couple of display dress forms that I had purchased at a store going out of business for $5 each, but they had no stands. That would be no problem—I have made stands using a defunct yard sale floor lamp, a stand from a thrown away floor fan, mop handles in old Christmas tree stands and anything else that will hold my offbeat creations. Then, chicken wire needed to be formed and attached—OK, I have chicken wire.
However, I still didn’t want to go to so much trouble. Then, I thought of the 18″ styrofoam bust I had gotten on sale, of course, at Joann’s after Halloween last year. My daughter said she had a small, 4 ft., prelit white tree in the basement I could use. There was my easy way out that turned into a bigger production than originally intended, but things usually do for me. For one thing, the original tree base had been lost in moving, so I had to come up with a sturdy base. I stole the one from my umbrella table, cleaned it up, and spray painted it with a metallic silver.
Materials
- 18″ styrofoam bus
- 4′ prelit tree
- 15″ peacock (from craft store)
- Blue feathers (wired on with blue pipe cleaners)
- Peacock-themed Christmas sprays (cut apart and scattered in tail)
- 6″silver rhinestone trim (bridal department at Michaels; 1 1/2″ trimmed and glued at top of bodice, 4″ remaining glued to bottom of bodice)
- 1/2 yard fabric on bodice was hand-sewn on (I, fortunately, had a metallic peacock piece that had been in my stash for years, and it matched perfectly for this)
- Crystal beads randomly hot glued on bodice
- Blue and silver sequin trim glued onto top and bottom of silver trim
- 20 yards of 6″ tulle
- Ornaments
Putting the Tree Together
1. A hole was cut from the bottom of the styrofoam bust for the tree.
2. The tree fit nicely into the stand I had stolen from my umbrella table.
3. The bust needed a little more elegance, so paper lace doilies were decoupaged on using Mod Podge. I tried fabric laces, but none worked on the styrofoam.
Decorating
1. Our Christmas decorations had been scavenged for my poinsettias, garlands, beads, and anything else that might be usable. My initial vision with beautiful mauve poinsettia garlands went out the window (now I will have to make another for this theme) when the peacock decor came to mind.
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Let us know what you think!
May the joy of crafting be upon you
What else would you use a peacock theme to decorate? Let us know below in the comments!
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