Make it Monday: Christmas Trees for Your Front Porch

6:48 PMHeather

Oh, how I love Pinterest.  It has inspired me.  It has given me many new recipes.  It has offered great inspiration for crafty goodness.  It has decorated my house and cleaned it.  It has wasted countless hours of my time and also helped to pass the time on several road trips.

When it comes to Pinterest, my OCD is so very happy, happy, happy when I "repin" an idea from its original board and move it to my "Completed Pinterest Ideas" board.  Cause I like to cross things off that way.  Yes, I'm one of those people who have been known on occasion to write something on my task list that I've already done just so that I can scratch a line through it.  

And, today, I share with you one of my most recent "completed pinterest ideas." I first saw this last Christmas season.  And, I never got to it.  But, this...THIS was my year.  

Here is the before:


Those, my friends, are tomato cages.  You know, you put them around your tomato plants.  If, that is, unlike me, you actually got to that "grow your own vegetables" pin on pinterest.  These cages are a whopping $2.50 each at Lowes.  

And, here is the after:

 
Voile!  These little babies now sit on my front porch, in the pots I bought this last summer.  They flank my porch in perfect symmetry, and they have lights in them, too.  (Unfortunately, if you drive by my house, you'll note that I'm having technical difficulties in the middle section of each tree.  For some reason, those sections don't lit.  So, I guess I should say they are MOSTLY lit at night.)
  
This was a super fun project to do with my girl.  Until she decided she wanted me to finish them all up so she could watch Jake and the Neverland Pirates instead.  She was simply exhausted about halfway through.  Tough work, you know.
 
Supplies:
--2 tomato cages
--2 large pots (optional!  You could just set these on the porch, no pots)
--8 green garlands from Dollar Tree
--1 roll of decomesh (Hobby Lobby, 50% off--so $5)
--5 tubes of gold and red ornaments (Dollar Tree)
--2 large stars (Dollar Tree)
--4 floral picks of berries (Dollar Tree)
--2 package of snow flake ornaments (Dollar Tree)
--6 boxes of white Christmas lights (Dollar Tree)
--1-2 spools of thick jewelry wire (Hobby Lobby)
--Scissors

So, if you're counting, the grand total here is about $40.  I was thinking this was pretty great...and then I went into Lowes.  I saw very plain green with lights only trees on sale--no decomesh, no ornaments.  No lovely red star.  And they were being sold for about $45 each.  CHA-CHING.  Yes, friends.  I felt EVEN better about my ability to bargain craft.  Thanks, once again, Dollar Tree.

Instructions:
1.  Use some wire to wire up the tops of the tomato cages.  This can be tricky.  I basically wound it around and around the top and wove it in and out.  Looks messy when done.  But, will be totally covered up.

2.  Take the green garland, and wind it around the cage. We started at the top.  We used wire to secure the garland to the cage at the top, every so often, and at the bottom.   Continue this until you have 4 green garlands covering up each of your basic cages.  Spread them out.  It will have spaces in between.  But, don't worry!

3.  Take your wide decomesh and cut it in half lengthwise.  This gives you amble width, while also giving two lengths--one for each tree.   

4.  Wind your decomesh around each tree, starting at the top.  Place the decomesh in the blank spaces between the greenery.  See? No more blank spaces.

5.  Now, plug your lights together.  3 per tree.  Using wire, secure the lights to the top of the tree, and wind them evenly around the tree.  Use small lengths of wires to secure the lights to the cage every so often.  Try to space them out evenly.  

6.  Now, using the wire, attach the ball ornaments and snowflake ornaments to the cage in order to "trim your tree."

7.  Cut the berry floral picks so that you have all the different stems separatedAttach each stem to the cage with lengths of wire.  

There you have it.  You are done.  Unless yours ends up like mine and a section of lights refuse to work and they taunt you every time you pull up to your house at night.  They scream at you that you really aren't done and you have. got. to. figure. it. out. 

Then, you aren't done.  And, when you get yours figured out, you can comment below to tell me your secret.  Then, I'll follow YOUR instructions and I'll finally be done.

Happy crafting, friends!  And, Merry Christmas.     
    

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