Day 22 at Beccy's Place - T is for Twig Tree

I'm playing along with the

Ninth Annual Month Of Holiday Cards

at

Beccy's Place

I'm not colouring at the moment but I am working on Christmas craft projects for creative little hands around our neighbourhood ... the endless months of Covid-19 lockdowns has brought our community much closer and I look forward to sharing more crafty adventures with them over the coming weekends and school holidays now that restrictions have eased.

Beccy's prompt for Day 22 is the letter "T"

(Beccy's post with "T" inspiration words and

twinkling lights card to inspire is HERE)

My "T" kids Christmas activity kit is for a Twig Tree ornament.

This fun ornament starts with getting out in the fresh air picking up sticks.  Pick up a variety of sizes that are as smooth and as straight as possible but not too smooth or straight because we want our trees to have character.  As my favourite little hands are not well at the moment, I used the twigs we gathered the other day.  In a way it has worked out for the best because it has been terribly hot all day and evening ... it's "tomorrow" now and the forecast is for it to be even hotter today, so I think I will be hibernating inside with the air conditioner.

Cut a strip of felt.  My sheet was A4 size, so I cut it lengthways, 1" wide and just over 11 1/2" long, rounding the end for the bottom.  About 1 1/4" from the bottom, start making the slots for the twigs by cutting two vertical parallel slits in the felt - I cut the 1st slit about 1/3 the way in from the side and about 5/8" long, went across another 1/3 the of the way to the other side and cut another slit.  I continued along the length of felt, cutting twin slits starting about 1" from the end of the previous slit, until seven slots were made.

Line the twigs up largest to smallest, breaking (or snipping with secateurs) so that you have seven twigs working inwards to a point for the tree shape.  My widest twig is 5" long, the top, smallest one, is 1 1/2" long.  Thread the twigs through the twin slits and continue until all seven have been put in place.  I folded the top end of the strip, snipping the end off to leave a 1 1/8" flap and applied liquid adhesive to the end of the flap, adhering it to the back of the felt tree "stem" to make a loop.  Cut a length of ribbon, string or twine to make the loop to hang the ornament.  I used thick string (OK, it's natural jute with a gold thread through it to but it's too much to keep saying, so I will stick with string) to add to the rustic charm of the ornament.  Thread one end of the string through the felt loop at the top of the tree, tie a knot to make a hanging loop then pull the string loop until the knot is hidden inside the felt loop for a neater finish.  Finish off the twig tree with a star or large button.  I was lucky to have found a huge 1 1/2" red button in a pack of assorted Christmas buttons I bought the other day, it fitted perfectly, so I used liquid adhesive to glue it in place.  It contrasts perfectly with the green felt and string with golden thread.

The finished ornament is 14 1/2" long (including the loop for hanging).

The widest twig is 5" long.

*** INGREDIENTS ***

felt

scissors

twigs / sticks - gathered from the garden or park

optional - secateurs - to cut sticks to desired lengths

liquid adhesive - I used Helmar 450 Quick Dry

large button or star - to decorate the top of the tree

ribbon / string / twine - loop to hang the ornament

*** REFERENCE ***

This project was inspired by the "Twig Christmas Tree Ornament" post on the "Arty Crafty Kids" blog HERE.