Vintage Inspired Bottle Brush Star Ornaments
Inexpensive bottle brush trees can be easily turned into stars and hung on the tree! Follow the directions below to make your own vintage inspired ornaments!
Several years ago I found and purchased a bottle brush star, studded with
creamy white pearls. It's one of my favorite ornaments, and I have long
planned to try to recreate it. Well, this was the year!
As you can see, the star is one solid piece of bottle brush, and the back
looks just as good as the front. I had to do a little thinking to figure out
how to recreate this ornament but in the end it was really easy!
If you love vintage inspired ornaments that are inexpensive and easy to make, I hope you'll try making a few bottle brush stars for your tree!
Easy vintage inspired bottle brush star ornaments
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The supplies to make your own bottle brush star ornaments are relatively
inexpensive. I have done a lot with bottle brush trees this year, and bought
several different ones from the Dollar Tree and Amazon early on in the season.
But just last week I visited Hobby Lobby to pick up the trees to make the
green bottle brush ornaments as well as the multicolored ones!
Supplies
- bottle brush trees, various sizes (I bought this cream set of bottle brush trees) It's a great price and includes a variety of sizes*
- hot glue
- wire snips
- vintage style ornaments (I found mine at Michaels, Hobby Lobby and TJ Maxx)
*if you're wanting to make a tree topper, then I recommend purchasing 6-8"
bottle brush trees, like
THESE)
NOTE: each tree requires 5 bottle brush trees of equal height to make a
star shaped ornament or tree topper
I have been crafting with bottle brush trees all season, I just haven't shared
too many of my projects yet - the season is getting away from me! If you
follow
my Instagram channel, I have lots of quick video reels that don't make it to the blog, and I'll
be adding my bottle brush tree crafts in the next few days!
Steps to make bottle brush tree star ornaments
To start with, remove the base of the trees by simply twisting. They should
pop right off. You'll then want to snip the excess wire from the stem with
wire snips, leaving about 1/4-1/2".
The last step is to generously add hot glue to the base of an ornament and
glue it in the center of the star ornament. I took the caps off, and with the
plastic ornaments, even snipped the part that held the ornament so it was
flat.
Tips for success
- bend the stem slightly away from the wood round to make adding the trees easier
- try to ensure that the base of the trees are snugly against one another...if they're not, you may need to snip a little more of the wire stem
- use a generous amount of glue to hold all the elements in place (you might need to use silicone finger tips to protect yourself from hot glue burns, or just use the tip of your scissors as I did)
My largest bottle brush star is made from Dollar Tree bottle brush trees and
pearls. I used a vintage ivory floss ornament in the center and love how
perfectly vintage it looks! I hung this one as a tree topper on my vintage
inspired tree.
To attach it, I use a white chenille stem around the base of one tree,
creating a loop at the back that I slipped over the top branch of my tree.
But I didn't stop there, I made a wide variety of bottle brush star ornaments,
using different colors of bottle brush trees and ornaments. Each is slightly
different.
I hung the DIY ornaments on the small tree in my kitchen nook, next to my
display of Santa mugs. It's so totally charming and makes my
vintage-loving-heart smile!
I did find that the small packages of bottle brush trees from the Dollar Tree
were pretty slim and not very full of bristles. I ended up gluing tiny trees
in between the larger ones for a couple of the ornaments. This gave it more
fullness.
I really love how these Christmas ornaments turned out. They have a vintage
vibe, even though they're created with mostly new pieces. If you own some
truly vintage ornaments, you could make some really beautiful bottle brush
tree star ornaments!
The ornaments don't have any hangers because the sisal makes them a little
bristly and they stay in place on the tree. You could definitely add a hanging
ribbon if you wanted.
What a sweet little craft! And I love that they require no hanger. I am always drawn to these little trees!
ReplyDeleteThanks Gina, they make me smile with their vintage charm!
DeleteWhat dollar store do you shop to get these little trees? Our store has very plasticy ones.
ReplyDelete