Small Animal Crossing Cherry Blossom Tree With Air Dry Clay

Cherry blossom season is too fletting ! In Animal Crossing New Horizon, the lovely cherry blossom trees are only available for 10 days. So I had to make one I can enjoy all year round 🌸

This tutorial will show you how to make a small cherry blossom tree with air dry clay !

Supplies

Air dry clay

Aluminium foil

Empty toilet paper roll

4 styrofoam balls (Diameter = 6,2cm ≈ 2,44 inches)

Pink, White and Brown acrylic paint

Hot glue

Tacky glue

Printer paper

Basic sculpting tools and paint brushes

Wooden skewers

6 toothpicks

Step 1: Sculpt the Roots

First, you will need to sculpt the tree’s roots.

Start by folding the tin foil into 6 small triangle shapes as shown in the pictures. The roots should be about half an inch long.

Next, glue those tiny triangles at the bottom of the toilet paper roll using a hot glue gun.

Step 2: Sculpt the Tree's Trunk

Flatten a large chunk of air dry clay.

Trim off the excess clay and cut a large rectangle shape that will fit the toilet paper roll.

Wrap the clay around the "tree's trunk" and smooth it with a large wet paintbrush.

Cover the tree's roots with paper clay and gently smooth it with your fingers or a flat rubber sculpting tool.

Once you're satisfied with the tree's trunk, let the clay dry for at least 2 hours.

Step 3: Paint the Tree's Trunk

For this step I used beige, brown and a drop of black acrylic paint.

Mix these colors together in order to obtain the perfect shade of light brown for the cherry blossom tree.

Apply the paint with a large flat paint brush. Next, use a thin paint brush to paint 3 large swirls on the tree's trunk as shown in the picture.

Let the paint dry for half an hour...and you're done ! :)

Step 4: Paint 4 Styrofoam Balls

Place the styrofoam balls on small wooden skewers.

Paint the styrofoam balls with light pink acrylic paint.

Step 5: Carve and Glue the Styrofoam Balls

Using a hot glue gun, place a small piece of tin foil on top of the tree's trunk. (You don't want the styrofoam ball to slide inside the tree's trunk.)

Next, glue a styrofoam ball on top of the tree's trunk.

You will need to slice off 1/4 of each of the three styrofoam balls.

Next place toothpicks inside the styrofoam balls and connect them to the ball glued above the tree's trunk.

Use hot glue to secure the styrofoam balls on the tree's trunk.

⚠️ Make sure the glue isn't too hot or it WILL melt the styrofoam ⚠️

The tree should be about 16,5 cm tall (≈6,49 inches).