Christmas Tree – with added sparkle!

I do like to have a real Christmas tree but, without access to a car, they can be a challenging thing to purchase. In previous years the main criteria for where to buy a tree has been that it had to be close enough to the house for a decent size tree to be carried home. However, the luxury of a car this year meant that I could work a bit more meaningfully on ‘shopping local’.

I had discovered that the Frenchay Christmas Tree Farm on the outskirts of Bristol, was owned by someone I used to go to school with (and his Dad), so that is where I headed. I got a great reception and found a beautiful tree at a really reasonable price (and that was before I was given ‘mates rates’ – thanks Simon!)  Anyway, if a Christmas tree doesn’t already give you a warm glow, supporting a local business who has lovingly hand tended each tree was the icing on the cake – or should I say angel on the top?!

The next step was to decorate the tree. Last year I felt the tree needed a bit more sparkle. Although I love all the decorations, many are handmade from fabric and so are less than shiny. I was therefore inspired watching Kirstie’s Homemade Christmas when she made some glittery baubles – just what I needed.

Fortunately, this weekend was Craft Club so what better way to spend an afternoon with friends than to apply glue and glitter to polystyrene balls, whilst catching up on all the gossip. It was even a task that I thought I could achieve under the influence of a glass of mulled wine! Kirstie insists that the balls are left to dry for 24 hours before applying hairspray (as a final fix for the glitter) so it was great that we were all staying the night (thanks Jo!) to gorge ourselves on home cooked food and perhaps another glass or two of wine.

If you want to have a go at these baubles yourself just get a load of polystyrene balls, some bamboo kebab skewers, some PVA glue and a brush, glitter, hairspray, some loose cover pins, and some ribbon to hang them with. Oh and an upturned box with holes poked in it or florists foam for the skewers to stand in whilst the glue dries.

As for the instructions, I don’t think it could be simpler. Stick the sharp end of the skewer into the polystyrene ball, paint with PVA glue but not so much that it will drip or run (I found this out to my cost!), then mix up your glitter and sprinkle liberally over the gluey ball. Stand the skewer in the box or foam and leave to dry for 24 hours.  Repeat until your run out of balls, glue or glitter! I even made a bauble with all the left-over glitter colours mixed in together, which turned out surprisingly well.

The next day give each ball a liberal coating of hairspray and, once dry, carefully remove the skewer and hide the hole by fixing a ribbon loop to this part of the bauble using a loose cover pin. Kirstie simply fixed the centre of the ribbon to the bauble and tied a bow at the top to hang over the tree branch but I went for the slightly more fiddly option. I crossed and overlapped the ribbon at the bauble end before fixing with the pin and then hid the pin with a simple knot.

Over tea and mince pies the previous day the Crafters had discussed which ribbon looked best with which bauble. I decided to try all options – matching the colours as well as mismatching them. I’ll let you decided which you prefer.

I'm really pleased with the results, which are even more sparkly in real life!