Bottle Brush Tree Mania

Here's a little post that I should have written weeks ago.  

But since I am not one of those bloggers who starts thinking about Christmas in July, I am publishing it today.

On Christmas Eve.  

Merry Christmas.  

;)

............................................................

Loyal readers (hi mom!) will remember that I recently had the opportunity to teach a session at San Diego's Urban Craft Camp.  I am happy to report that the class was great and people loved their bottle brush snow globes.

And those snow globes whet my appetite for all things bottle brush.  So, inspired by this blogger, I went ahead and whipped up a few of these:

I think this craft is pretty self explanatory so I'm not going to do a tutorial, however if you want more information about how to make one, let me know in the comments.

What I will tell you is that if you use a wide mouthed mason jar like the one below, you can fit a gift card in with the bus.

I also probably don't need to explain these DIY present toppers since I've discussed similar ones HERE.

What I will tell you how to make, however, are these colorful bottle brush trees!

I whipped them up a few weeks ago and have been having a great time sprinkling them around the house.

The first thing you want to do is bleach your bottle brush trees.  (You can buy bottle brush trees HERE if you don't have any.)

I should warn you right now that if you're looking for exact measurements and  precise instructions.... well, you're in the wrong place.

I bleached these by filling a bucket with hot water and pouring in some bleach.  (Maybe half a cup?)

Then I threw in the trees and left them there until they looked like this:

(Kids, don't try this without adult supervision.  Seriously.  Bleach is hardcore.)

After that I filled some old pickle jars with hot water and RIT dye.  Again, no measurements, I just poured in a few splashes of the RIT until I liked the color of the water.  Then I tossed in the trees until I liked their color.

And here are the results!

I love them and I hope you do too!

Merry Christmas, everyone!  

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