popsicle stick trees

I must confess my love affair with Pinterest. There are so many amazing crafts and ideas and stuff to look at. I will admit that sometimes I may not get to all my crafting because I am busy pinning things to work on later. Sad but true.

Anywho... I found these popsicle stick trees on Pinterest and knew I had to make them for the PTA Turn Off TV Week raffle baskets. I am working on creating a basket of handmade Christmas goodies to be raffled off in March. Yes, I am a little bit ahead of myself, but I want this done so I can create a few more baskets of goodies for the school. We'll see!!

After checking the link on Pinterest and not finding any directions (bummer) I did find some directions here at You Can Do It! I guess the original post that should have had directions was actually for a contest and the contest is done so all entries were erased. Thankfully Rebecca had gotten the instructions and then posted them on her blog. whew!!

I had to improvise and figure out sizes of branches and such, but I am totally happy with how these came out. Take a peek....

I got the larger popsicle sticks, a bag of wooden stars (1 1/2 inch size) and a bag of wooden blocks (one inch size) from Michaels. They do have the pre-painted and decorated stars, but for about the same amount of money, I could make my own and have extras in case I want to do this project again!! The wire on the two small trees, I had in my stash as all the paints were there too!

I have been painting sticks for days and I never thought I would finish. I was so happy yesterday when I started dotting the branches (end of my paint brush and I also used a dry embossing tool to do the small dots) and could see the end coming to this project! The larger trees are made with two popsicle sticks that have been trimmed and one of the branches holds both sections together. I used craft glue on the dotted branches and used hot glue for the wire branches and to attach the trees to the bases. It seemed to hold better and quicker than the craft glue and think I would use that if I did it again.

Sizes and quantities used....
SMALL TREES- trunk 1 stick, branch sizes- 2",2 1/4", 2 3/4", 3 1/4", 3 3/4"
LARGE TREES- trunk 2 sticks one cut off 1 1/2" and the second cut off 1", branch sizes- 1 1/4", 1 1/2", 1 3/4", 2", 2 1/4", 2 1/2", 2 3/4"

To give the trees support, I glued three sticks together lengthwise (and painted them) which is attached to the back of the tree (once the branches are attached). I used one more single stick to attach the whole tree to the base. I put this stick about halfway down on the back of the base to give support once everything was attached. Hope that makes sense.

And the sizes of the branches are totally what I came up with. Maybe you want thinner or fatter trees... I wanted to give some sizes for you to start with. Have fun with this. I know I did.