Trees to DYE for: Bleached, Dyed, and Glittered

Hello my friends!  We've all heard that saying that if at first you don't succeed try, try again.

 

Well, am I ever glad I did!  With a little (a lot) of help from my friend, Joanne I can now spell S U C C E S S!

When it comes to dying bottle brush trees.

 

 

I  hope this tutorial will help you to do the same.

 

 

Last year I swooned over bleached bottle brush trees.  So off to Joanne's I went to buy trees and have a whole lot of fun.

Only to find. . .

that my trees did not come out pretty and it was a big failure!  Turns out some trees just don't cooperate.  :)

So this year after visiting my friends home and swooning (again) over her gorgeous trees she invited me to come have fun with her.

 

I swear these trees are so luscious that I could almost

 gobble them up!

 

You may already know all of the how to's, but if not; I'm happy to share.

 

The trees that I used are a very soft bristle.

 

Step 1:

Place bleach in a bowl and soak your trees.  Doesn't take long to have a pretty white tree.

 

2:

Mix a small amount of dye in a bowl with hot water till dissolved. 

I found that the powdered worked a lot faster than the liquid, but either will work. 

 

 

3: 

Rinse the bleach off and place in prepared dye.

 

At first we took off wooden bases and glued them on afterwards, but found that to not be necessary.

 

 

We used a variety of colors at her home, but I dyed more at mine and used yellow and aqua. Why? Because that's what I had.

 

 

4:

When desired color is obtained rinse again and insert into

 vinegar to set color.

We left some longer for various shades.  Red dye will give you various shades of light red and pink.  We also obtained a peach color by placing in red for a few minutes and then into yellow. 

 

5:

Rinse off vinegar and place on paper towel to dry.

Okay, here I broke the rule.  I found that the liquid dye would wash almost completely out whenever I rinsed them so I just took them straight out of the dye and placed on paper towel.  Found later that if I added a lot more dye I could rinse.

 

 

6: 

 Let dry (if in a hurry you can speed this up by blowing gently with a blow dryer.)

 

Now for the fun!!

 

My sil demonstrated for me while I snapped photos.

Brush them with Modge Podge.

 

Don't worry about it being perfect!

 

 

 

Then sprinkle or roll in glitter.  Honestly either works.  We used clear and they sparkle beautifully!

 

I already had this Martha Stewart glitter, but ran out and bought a cheaper brand and it worked just the same.

 



 

 

Gently shake loose glitter off and let dry.  No blow dryer here.  :)

 

 

Then have fun placing them all over your home.

 

(looking down into my glass garden house)

 

I had fun fancying some up a bit.

 



 

(the cameo was my mothers.  Love it!)



Do you think I love these trees or what?  lol!

 

Merry Christmas,

Jann

 

I will be sharing with these lovely parties:

Shabby Art Boutique for Shabbilicious Friday