Rustic Mini Christmas Tree Centerpiece

One of my fellow bloggers invited me to be a part of a DIY challenge to create Christmas decor using Dollar Tree mini trees.

Now I love a good challenge and all, but when I opened up the box and took a look at this tree, all I could think about was Charlie Brown's Christmas!! But really, what do you expect from a $1 item? So the first challenge was to add a bit of bulk to the tree!!

I did this buy attaching some branches I had from an old Christmas tree and garland that I had on hand. I attached the longer branches by just twisting them around the Dollar Tree's stem and the shorter ones I attached with green floral wire.

Once I had the fullness I wanted I grabbed a can of white spray paint and gave each of the three trees a light coat. When that dried (About 2 hours) I then gave each tree a light coat of faux canned snow. This can be messy so I would definitely recommend good coverage around your work area! Also, if you do too heavy of a coat the snow will not dry, so do this with a light hand. You can always add more. But a little goes a long way!

While the trees were drying I started on the buckets that would hold them. These were galvanized buckets I had picked up at Walmart for another project. All I did was give each of them two light coats of black spray paint. Allowed them to dry and then attached buffalo check ribbon and a wooden ornament to each using hot glue.

Then I stuck some Styrofoam squares I picked up at the Dollar tree inside the buckets to hold the trees. Each tree came with it's own stand so I removed the hardware from the stand and stuck the end of the tree into the Styrofoam.

To create the centerpiece I used a piece of stained wood and placed the trees, a few 'frosted' pine cones and two candles to complete my simple rustic centerpiece!

I love that each tree has a festive saying now, but once Christmas is over I can remove the ornaments and keep the trees up all winter long!!! You can find my complete tutorial over on the blog!!