bottlebrush trees

Posted on December 17, 2007 | 8 Comments

I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long to figure this one out…

Start with those cheapy trees that come in a bag of like 20 at the craft store…

Greentrees

Dunk them in a bleach/water combo. The more bleach you use the faster the color will be removed, but also the stinkier it will be. My first try I used a little bleach, maybe a couple of capfuls, and filled up the tiny side of my sink with water. It took about all day to get a white tree. The next try I dumped rather alot of bleach in there, and in about 5 minutes, I had white trees…

Bleachtree

Then, voila! I was going to run out and get some RIT dye and get some nice vintagey colors going, but my car is currently stuck in my icy driveway… I think the white is rather nice! I added some glass glitter to one, a bit of tarnished tinsel to another. I’m going to bleach the whole bag of trees and have a white bottlebrush forest to accompany my not yet made glittery cardboard vintage- village (maybe I’ll get to that one next year!)

Whitetrees_2
It would also be nice to pull off those plastic snow bases, and maybe use wooden discs at the bases for a more authentic look.

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8 Responses to bottlebrush trees

  1. Michelle M White | December 17, 2007 at 1:56 pm |

    I love it! I have that same huge bag and so want white!!! You are sooooo smart! Thanks!

  2. Jen | December 17, 2007 at 3:40 pm |

    Those look fantastic! What an inspired idea.

  3. ismoyo | December 17, 2007 at 4:38 pm |

    How very very clever!
    They look wonderful!

  4. Karen | December 17, 2007 at 6:35 pm |

    That’s a great crafty idea. I love the bottle brush trees.
    Have fun.
    Happy Holidays!

  5. jen | December 17, 2007 at 7:48 pm |

    Way cool Jenn! I’ve seen people bring them down to a pretty light green, but nowhere near a perfect white yet.
    OH and congratulations on a great ebay round last week! Guess I’ll always be glad for the one I got on etsy ;-)

  6. Nancy Cook | December 17, 2007 at 8:07 pm |

    as a fan of bottle brush trees
    i have to say what an inspired craft idea
    and i agree a different base would be better but, yeah there’s always next year to do that…

  7. Beth | January 3, 2008 at 9:33 pm |

    That’s genius! I love the white trees!

  8. Kassenrollen | November 12, 2011 at 7:50 am |

    hi, thanks for this nice article. i realy like your Blog and i will continue reading :-). regards