Halloween Trees AND Super Awesome Ornaments!

I am a huge fan of Halloween decorations and I've always wanted a Halloween tree.

This year I finally made one...and then I made another one. This is an easy kids friendly way to make a Halloween tree AND super awesome ornaments.

Supplies

TREE & SWAG (All bought at the dollar store!)

-Cheap artificial Christmas tree. (trees were $5 at the $1 store...those tricksters!)

-Faux greenery to swag out the tree.

-Ball picks & Halloween ornaments for added swagger.

-Pine cones for natures swag.

-Spray paint to make the tree look less fake.

-Fairy lights from AliExpress the Internets dollar store.

-A ribbon for swag awesomeness!

ORNAMENTS

-Chalk paint, because you won't need to prime.

-Primer if you don't have chalk paint.

-Swag, because I haven't wrote it in a while.

-Craft paints in your choice. (just listen to your heart)

-Textile marker for the faces

-Skewers to draw details

-Wax to protect the awesome ornaments.

Step 1: The TWO Trees!

Check them out! I had so much fun making the first one, I had to make a second.

Halloween Tree #1 is all pumpkin ornaments with different faces. I used purple fairy lights and a black sheer ribbon.

Halloween Tree #2 is a mix of colors and Halloween characters. I used green fairy lights and a black and white striped ribbon.

Step 2: The Tree!

An easy way to bulk up a cheap artificial tree is by hot gluing faux greenery to the tips of it. I cut up faux air plants and glued the pieces all over. The tree will look all kinds of whacky, but spray paint will blend it all of it together.

Any color of spray paint will look cool! I went with black. I experimented with grey and purple, but those colors made the tree look even cheaper!

After painting the tree, I hot glued on pinecones and colored cotton balls. Don't go too crazy, because you'll need room for the super awesome ornaments.

Step 3: The Ornaments!

These are just old Christmas ornaments. I cut of the strings and added wire. Be careful twisting the wire to the caps, because these caps are easily broken. I broke like 5! I super glued to wire in the broken cap and then built it up with hot glue.

The ornaments are messy to paint and the easiest way to paint them is by making a hook out of the wire and hooking them on a pole to dry. I did about 10 ornaments at a time.

I also hot glued the caps onto some of them, but you don't need to.

Step 4: Chalk Paint or Prime

You don't need to prime if you use chalk paint. Chalk paint will also give the ornaments a nice texture. I used left over Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and made the mistake of using red. Red was a horrible idea, because it bled-through the colors. I assumed it would a little, but it did a lot! Dang it!

Some of the ornaments had curlicue designs on them. You'll find out what I did with those later...cliffhanger!

Step 5: Details!

I used textile markers and bamboo skewers to draw the faces. For bigger areas, I just used a small paint brush.

You can also use paint markers and permanent markers, just stay away from cheap markers. You don't want the faces to smear. Use oil or paint based.

I turned the curlicue ornaments into little Freddy Krugers! Are you surprised...no? Not at all?

Step 6: The Ornaments and Waxing!

Adorable!!

Protect the ornaments with a wax. The wax will be sticky for an hour and then cure.

These all took about 3 coats of paint. The white took 6, because I primed with red chalk paint! The faces only took 1.

I made all kinds of cute pumpkin faces and I also made little Freddy Kruegers, Frankensteins, vampires, a ghost the looks like an alien, mummies and skeletons.