Blend nature, tissue paper and upcycled shirts

The creative director (now a 3 year old mini crafter) and I have recently been working through a long list of craft activities that we can both enjoy.

This week featured quite a few different activities but my favourite was definitely this one, a fabric wrapped tree branch with tissue paper flowers. Not only was the process fun (although somewhat sticky) but we now have a lovely new decoration.

Wrapped Tree Craft

I must admit to some trepidation at the outset and had stalled on this project for almost a year but earlier this week we were out walking and I found the perfect tree branch, so branch in hand my excuse of not having the right materials was eliminated. Ari of course needed to know what the branch was for and after telling her we were going to use it for a craft project she was on the case and very determined to get this tree branch activity underway.

Here is how I went about it...

We raided the fabric stash for a mens shirt (quote "don't cut that up mama its dadda's shirt") and cut it into rough narrow strips. These were then coated with stick glue one at a time as I wrapped the branch from bottom to top. I used a peg to hold each strip on the to branch as I went, the glue dried fast and stuck surprisingly well to the tree-branch so I just moved the peg from spot to spot. Ari helped with the glue, un-capping and re-capping the stick every few minutes and helping hold and retrieve the fabric (for some inane reason we picked a very windy day and decided to work outside, the scene for most of our craft projects). I did lose two fine branches along the way but nothing too critical and now that it is wrapped in shirt material the remaining branches seem quite sturdy. So ended day one, I was over having glued fingers and 3 year olds like to change activities fairly frequently.

On day two I added a few navy blue fabric accents to the spots of the branch that needed more coverage. Next came the flowers. I thought white would look great and Ari loves yellow so we decided on a cluster of tissue paper (2 white sheets with one yellow on top). I cut the tissue paper into very rough squares and stacked them with slight rotation to give the impression of multiple petals and then pinched them together in the middle. Armed with the hot glue (and Ari safely in the other room) I started attaching flowers and kept going until I was happy with the result.

Done!!!

My inspirations (and thanks) for this project were a combination of this lovely easter wrapped tree decoration from myrtle and eunice and the tissue paper flower decorated branches on circle of mums.

0 comments

Write a comment

Comments are moderated