DIY Painted Burlap Christmas Tree

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Sometimes you might want something other than a wreath on

your door at Christmas time.  A painted burlap shape is an easy

and inexpensive option that you can design to be whatever

you want it to be.  I had seen some images of whimsical 

Christmas trees that I thought would be fun to try to copy.

The window area of my front door is long and thin.  I wanted 
the tree to fill up as large a portion of that as possible to be
easily visible from the street.  The good thing about painted
burlap door hangings is that you  make the pattern to cut the
burlap so it can be the size and shape that you want. 

To make this pattern, I taped together newspapers to

 be the same size as the window so I would know 

how much space I actually had to work with and

 make the tree as large as possible. 

Freehand draw the shape that you want your burlap 

hanging to be.  My shape was a lot of trial and error

 with a sharpie so I could see the lines on the newspaper. 

 If you have some white paper without writing to make

 your pattern that would be even better.  

Since I wanted both sides of the tree to be the same 

shape, I folded the paper in half and will cut both

sides at the same time.  

After I got the shape of the tree drawn, I thought

 I needed some more height on the middle section

 so I added a "spacer" with painter's tape.  

As long as you can see the shape you want, your

pattern does not have to be pretty. 

Although you don't have  to stuff your burlap shape, it adds

dimension and strength to the door hanging. To be able to 

stuff it, of course you need two identical shapes of burlap.

Pin your pattern to the burlap and cut it out. 

I happened to have green burlap left over from some

 curtains that I made a few years ago. 

Since you are going to be painting the burlap, you can 

use natural colored burlap also for your door hanging. 

 Since there are colored burlaps available, if you

 buying burlap specifically for this project, it does

 help to purchase a burlap close the the color your

door hanging will eventually be.

Since this burlap had been wadded up in the attic for

several years, it was wrinkled.  Go on and get any major

 wrinkles out of the burlap by ironing before painting.

Line up your two burlap shapes.

You can sew the shapes together if you want but hot glue

is a good option too.  You will not be turning the shapes

inside out for this project. Your ragged edges can be 

trimmed at the end of the project if they bother you. 

Part of the charm of the burlap door hangings is that

they are not perfect and have a rustic quality to them.

If you are going to stuff your shape, leave openings between

the two shapes the get the stuffing in there.  

If you are making a shape like a football, you probably only

need to leave one opening.  Since this shape is tall and has 

some more intricate points, I left several openings

 between the two shapes to be able to stuff it easily. 

If you are using hot glue to join your pieces, only put glue on

small sections at a time so that you can press the shapes 

together before the glue dries.  Be VERY careful pressing the

sides together because the hot glue WILL come through the

weave of the burlap and burn your fingers.  You can use a 

wooden skewer or the end of a paint brush instead to press. 

Leave the openings on the least-curved parts of the shape.

You can stuff your shape after you get it glued together

as I started to do in the photo below.  Then I stopped.

Wait. Do you stuff before painting or after?  

I went back to look at my own tutorials here and here.

The advantages of waiting to stuff the shape AFTER painting 

it are that the shape is easier to paint flat and that the paint

seals the edges somewhat and keeps them from fraying as

much when it comes to the stuffing part. 

 The disadvantage of stuffing after painting is that your paint

 sometimes seeps through to the other side of the burlap in

 places and the front and back sides stick together.

Either way is fine.  I chose to wait to stuff this time.

Protect your work surface.  

Acrylic paints from the craft stores are fine for this project.

You can thin them with a little water to make them 

easier to brush onto the burlap.  The paint seems to be

the thing that makes the burlap stiff so try to water

the paint down as little as possible. 

To avoid having too many just plain areas of color on this
large burlap hanging, added some embellishments like
making the tree stand have diamond shapes...

...adding painted candy canes on the tree...

...stenciling the white areas...

...and using a trick I saw on Pinterest...cardboard tubes
to make painted circles.   At first I used a smaller diameter 
tube from a wrapping paper roll.  Dip the end in paint...

...then onto your surface... 

...to make ball ornaments shapes to color in. 

After making several small ball ornaments on the tree, I 
tried a few larger ornament shapes made with an
empty toilet paper roll to add variety.

Depending on how much time and patience you have, you
could decorate each ball ornament but I just used that
 old paint trick of loading different paints on either side
of the paintbrush and applying it on a circle shape in
a swooping motion to give some dimension to the balls.

All of this paint can make the front and back stick together.
Use a paint brush or ruler to try to break up any stuck
together places before stuffing.  This is the first time I have
had the burlap stick together.  The other projects I have 
made used a looser (cheaper) weave of burlap so probably
the tighter the weave, the more likely it is to stick.

With the tighter weave burlap, however, it is
 easier to paint more intricate images on it.

When your paint is dry, you can stuff the burlap shape.
If your hanging is going outside, be sure to stuff your shape
with a material that will not mind getting a little moist.
One option that is free is plastic bags from stores.

To keep the edges of your shape from fraying as much
as possible, use a ruler or the end of a paint brush to 
poke the bags into the openings that you left while you
were gluing (or sewing) the two shapes together. 

If a whole bag is making a bigger lump than you want,
you can cut the bags in half (or more). 

Trim off any frayed edges that bother you. 

To hang most burlap painted shapes, you use wire.
This aluminum wire (available at Dollar Tree and in 
the floral sections of craft stores) is easy to cut and 
bend but it is also pretty sturdy.  


Just poke it through the burlap, make
a curly-q, then (leaving enough length to go over your 
wreath hanger) poke it again on the other side. 


With this shape burlap hanging, after about a week (and lots 
of rainy weather), the tree looked like this:

Maybe there was not enough space between the wire
insertion points to support the length of the tree?  

The wires were pulled out and a grosgrain ribbon loop was 
glued onto the center of the back of the tree up high.
So far, so good...hanging without buckling now.

You can paint the back of your burlap door hanging too.  It adds even more stiffness.

Although I wanted to add one more thing to the tree,
I needed it "as was" to take pictures for another blog
post showing the other outside decorations for this year.
"Make Big Candy For Decorating"

It looked perfectly fine BUT if you want to add a finishing
touch to your painted burlap hanging, you can outline the
edges (or more if you want) with fabric paint.

Painted burlap door hangings seem to hold up fine in a 
covered area outside.  They would probably not hold up 
in an outside area that gets rain, snow, etc. directly on them.

One of the main reasons that I wanted this burlap hanging
on my door this year is that I made wreaths for the six
windows that are on the front of the house and I thought
something other than a wreath would give some variety.

If you would like to see how these deco mesh wreaths were made, click
"Make a Christmas Mesh Wreath"

The painted burlap Christmas tree along with the other 
decorations that were made new this year combined to 
win this award!

If you want a painted burlap Christmas tree for next year
"pin" it on your boards...I'm really late in posting this tute!

I'm sharing this post at
Sunday Showcase @ Under the Table and Dreaming
Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps On The Porch
Inspire Me Tuesday @ A Stroll Thru Life
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday @ Coastal Charm

Debbiedoo's Features Miss Kopy Kat's Christmas

Come on over to Debbiedoos' blog to see a tour

of Miss Kopy Kat's Christmas decorating all in 

one blog post!  

From the fun and whimsical bright green and red candy 

theme in the front yard to the collection of 

made-to-look vintage bottle brush trees used in various

ways on the inside of the house.

Hope to see you at Debbiedoos' for the Christmas 

Cottage tour of Miss Kopy Kat's home!

Make Big Candy Decorations

Want some ideas on how to make inexpensive but large

candy decorations for Christmas decorating,

 Candy Crush Saga Party or candy-themed birthday party?  

The decorations featured here are in Christmas colors but

could be easily changed for other occasions or events.

The main "ingredients" in these candies are insulation foam

in a can, disposable plates and bowls, wrapping paper and paint.

 There are other brands of this type of product too...they give similar results for craft projects
(although that is NOT the purpose of the foam).

The foam will stick to anything it touches including floors, kids,
 pets and you until it dries.  Keep the kids and pets away and
protect yourself and your floors.  Spread out enough paper for
the whole project to begin with.  After you start releasing the 
foam from the can, you need to keep going because it can
dry up in the nozzle quickly and clog the tube up.

The foam sticks to the newspaper too.  That means that your
foam shape will have a newspaper back.  It can be painted or 
covered.  You could use wax paper to release the foam onto
but I thought that would be too expensive.  

If you are doing this project outside, use objects to hold the
paper down in case a breeze blows up.  If the paper blows up
on top of your foam shape before it has hardened, it can 
ruin the look of your object. 

It is better to make your foam shapes when it is warm.
Out of necessity, these shapes were done on a cool early
morning...they may have gotten puffier if I could have waited.

The plan was to make spiral lollipop shapes on sticks with
the foam.  I really did not like how they were turning out.
It took lots more "rounds" of foam than I thought it would.

Plus, the stick was making a bump in the foam.

In trying to think quickly (before the foam dried on the paper
and in the nozzle of the can), I grabbed a few Dollar Tree
plastic bowls to cover up the less-than-desirable lollipop shapes.

Well, maybe the biggest foam disasters could become

Tootsie Pops instead of swirl-y lollipops in "Plan B".

To make more "Plan B" suckers, I tried to make a foam

circle about the size of the rim of the plastic bowl with 

 dowel included in the foam to be the sucker's stick.

After placing the rim of the bowl in the foam ring, a 

mound of foam was added to the bottom of the bowl

to try to round it out for more of a ball shape.

On the next foam shape, I also added a vertical foam squirt

to add support and adhesion for the dowel.  

In addition to the sucker shapes, I formed some foam rounded rectangular shapes that would become giant Jolly Ranchers.

Here's what four cans of spray foam insulation yielded:

The foam shapes take about 30-45 minutes to get a semi-firm shell.  Depending on how thick the

foam shape is, it takes longer than that for the whole shape to be fully dried. 

Some of the swirled lollipop shapes were not too bad so they

got left as is (plus I didn't have anymore cheap bowls). 

I didn't want a lot red objects (I AM an Auburn fan...too much

red makes me nauseated...it's a University of Alabama color)

so these lollipops got spray painted a base color of green.

For the lollipops that did not have a dowel incorporated during the foam squirting

process, a dowel was pushed up inside of the foam after it dried. 

You can also use acrylic paint to color the foam.

This sucker took two coats of each color. 

OK...I will admit it turned out to be one of the best even if it is mainly red. 

The green lollipops had red stripes added with paint.

To help the "Plan B" suckers have a more rounded shape,

my friend and neighbor, Debbie (a well-organized person who

actually already had up her Christmas decorations and offered

to help me execute my giant candy ideas) had the good idea

to fill in the gaps with rolled newspapers held on by tape.

After the rounding out with newspaper, the Tootsie Pop

got a wrapping paper covering... 

...that was cinched at the base with a thin ribbon...

...then taped down on the sides.  

We didn't worry about a messy tape job because it won't be

noticed when the clear basket wrap it added on top.

We also didn't worry about a messy tape job on back

since these suckers will be mainly viewed from the front.

Wider packaging tape was used in hopes that it will 

withstand the weather these suckers will be subjected to.

Trim the wrapping paper into a pretty skirt.  Make the clear

basket wrap covering longer than the paper if you are going

to use these outside so it can be kind of an umbrella for the

wrapping paper. Tie on a pretty bow (wired ribbon is best).

To show how another foam shape turned out in case

 you want to try it instead, here is a shape that was

 formed more like a bee-hive by adding foam from the 

can on in circles on top of each other. 

 It did not need a bowl or any enhancements. 

These foam shapes can be trimmed with a serrated knife after they are dry.

The cut areas do not paint well, however, so keep that in mind when trimming. 

Here's how the bee-hive foam sucker turned out with the

wrapping paper and cellophane wrapping applied:

The painted lollipops got a spray of clear coat to help 

protect the finish and then a cellophane wrapping too.

How to make the smaller "mint" shaped candy in these photos is described further down in the post.

Above two photos by Weston Markwell

The "Plan B" Tootsie Pops ended up in the urns on the

front porch.  A couple of things that I would do 

differently on them next time is to use thin PVC pipe

for the sticks ( instead of wooden dowels) and I would not

add the extra mound of foam on the bottoms of the bowls.

It actually hurt the rounded shape instead of helping it. 

Above two photos by Weston Markwell

The candy canes in the urns came from the Dollar Tree. 

The Tootsie Rolls' sticks were just inserted into the dirt already

in the urns. White "snow" sheets, inexpensive tinsel, and picks

made from decorative basket wrap were all used to try to

hide the dirt.  

Nothing really looked good until I got a really fluffy tinsel

garland from Michael's on sale to cover the base. 

So far, the pops are holding up well even in the rain. 

The smaller mint-type and Jolly Rancher-ish shapes were

even easier.  The mints were made from disposable plates 

(some plastic some paper) being joined together along their 

rims with glue.  Since these are going outside, I used Super

Glue.  If your candy is going to be inside, regular glue is fine.

Put the plates together so they bow out on each side. 

Place a small object on the plates to hold them together

while the glue dries. 

Another option to make the mint shape is a solid foam shape.

This one came from the Dollar Tree along with a twin...so each

circle is fifty cents.  More expensive than a plate but more sturdy.

 If you want the wrapping paper to extend into the flared 

ends of the mint, allow plenty of paper on the ends.

To give your mint a more authentic look, also wrap the form

and paper in clear basket wrap or cellophane.

If you mint is going to be outside, make the cellophane extend

well past the wrapping paper so that you can fold it back in

to protect the paper.  Our cellophane was not long enough to

accomplish that so we layered it and covered the seam with

packaging tape. 

Gather the paper and cellophane close to the round shape

and tie the gather with ribbon, pipe cleaner, etc. 

It was easier to fold the cellophane back inside the wrapping

paper end if both the paper and cellophane were taped shut

into separate tube shapes.

Another option for the mints is to paint the plates.

Weston, Debbie's son, was a good enough sport to come help 

out with making the giant candies.  It's embarrassing to ask a

guy with a degree in Industrial Design to paint pie slices on a 

paper plate...such a waste of talent...but aren't they wonderful?

These don't have to be two colors but I did that to further

the bright green and red color scheme for the front decorations.

These were then just wrapped in clear cellophane leaving

enough on the ends to create flares. 

I didn't want to risk Weston's work being ruined out in the 

weather so I used them on the mesh garland on the covered

part of the porch.  To attach them to the garland, a floral wire

was twisted onto the ribbon tie.

The paper plate mints are so lightweight that the wire could be

threaded through the mesh poufs...

...and then twisted on from the back.

Less time-consuming mints were made in a similar fashion but

the plates were just covered with a paper that carried out the

color scheme and then wrapped in cellophane. 

This is the backside of the mint

Even easier mints to go with a party color can be made by

purchasing plastic plates that have the color on the bottom,

gluing them together and wrapping in cellophane.

The mints wrapped in paper are going out by the mailbox so

they need to stand on their own.  They got dowels glued onto

their backs. The green mint has a patterned cellophane on it. 

If I get a chance, I might paint the mints' sticks green to blend into the evergreen foliage.

The Jolly Rancher shapes were made similar to the paper-

covered mints.

The candy land Christmas decor may be a bit much but 

after a couple of years of subdued white and snowflakes in

the front yard, I was ready for some fun and color. 

Weston is also a very talented photographer!  The above four

photos are ones that he took for me.  Many thanks to him and 

his mom, Debbie, for helping me get this project done before

Christmas!