My Newspaper Christmas Tree

Remember earlier this month when I posted about Martha Stewart's Shimmering Stacked Tree? And I wrote that I was excited because it would be so easy to make? Well I was so wrong; it took forever to make!

First, it took me an entire Toronto Star, several flyers and two full hours to cut out all of the required newspaper squares. Thank goodness for my paper cutter because I would have given up using scissors!

Then it took another two hours to place the squares one at a time on the knitting needle and turn them to the proper positions.

But, 4 hours later, when it was done I was pretty pleased with the results. And it wouldn't take much to complete the rest of the steps, right?

Wrong! Because my clay base wasn't strong enough to hold up a knitting needle full of newspaper and the whole thing collapsed. At this point I had had about enough and hid the whole project out of sight before I decided to toss it all in the recycling bin.

Having put so much work in already I really didn't want to scrap the project so I kept trying to think of an idea for a new base. In the pet store picking up kitty litter, inspiration struck. I bought a little stainless steel pet bowl and hot glued some Christmas ribbon around the outside. Then I filled the bowl with clay and stuck the end of the knitting needle in. Voila, a potted newspaper Christmas tree!

All that was left after that was to spray the tree with glue and cover it with glitter. I chose white to give the idea of snow. I think it looks really pretty but I might spray it again and give it another coat of glitter to make it look a little more like Martha's version. I also need to find a star for the top of three to replace the silly silk flower I'm using as a place holder.

In the end, I'm happy with the end product but I would never take on this project again. It was so much work for something that doesn't look like it took very much effort. But it will make a unique addition to my Christmas decor this year!