How to Dye Bottle Trees

Awhile back I posted lots of little snippets of our bottle tree dying fun.  I promised to share how, and today I am fulfilling this promise!  I saw the idea first on Pinterest. Of course.   I found a photo of a beautiful pink sparkly bottle tree.  Swoon.  I thought how and where did they get that?  Once I linked over realized they'd made them.  Even better.  I can't remember the original link as after I saw how to make them I knew what to do!

 

It took awhile to locate some trees.  Her site had suggested the ones at Hobby Lobby in the model department.  But they weren't really the shape I wanted and were a bit pricey.  One afternoon while cruising the holiday aisle at Home Depot I spied this bag on the bottom row of a Christmas display.  I FREAKED out.  Like seriously squealed.  Pretty sure I looked foolish.  21 little trees.  Oh the possibilities!

Okay.  So here's what you need:
1-  craft trees like above
2-  small bucket
3-  bleach
4-  your sink and a drying rack
5-  paper towels
6-  Solo cups
7-  variety of dyes (we used liquid RIT but favorite was Neon food color)
8-  spray glue and glitter

STEPS:
1.  Place the bucket in your sink and empty the bleach into it.  I used part hot water part bleach.  Not sure about the ratio sorry.
2.  Gently place the trees into the bucket.  We used a plastic spoon to sorta keep them from floating up.  Leave in the water until all the green color is gone and they are whitish.  It's according to how much bleach you use as to how long it takes.  I recommend doing larger trees by themselves in the bucket.  Now don't walk away and watch a movie.  It only took like 5 minutes!

3. When you pull them out of the beach mixture rinse well and place in the dish drain.

4.  They are actually quite beautiful at this stage....we weren't patient and began they dying process while they were wet.  I am not sure if letting them dry would change the process or not.  So from my experience, these were simply towel dried.  :)

5.  I forgot to photo our dying process.  Basically we put solo cups on the counter with a bunch of dyes in them.  The more concentrated the color the better.  We kept experimenting with color combinations...it was crazy fun.  Mailey and I were fighting for more trees!  I personally liked the Neon Food coloring best.  Although the one below was made with RIT Liquid dye.  Oh, and the snow on the trees kinda gets eaten off in the bleach process.  This didn't bother me much since I knew we would be adding glitter.

6.  So below is our magical tree forest.  I lined the counter with layers of paper towels so the counter wouldn't get stained.  If you are on a wooden surface definitely put down something to protect the surface.  The trees leak until they are dry.  Some of the fun with the dying was layering.  We'd put the tip in one cup, the base in another and pour the middle a third!  The end results are amazing!

 

I love the blue and white one below.....

7.  After they were completely dry I went to the basement and covered my floor with butcher paper.  Using spray glue I lightly misted the trees then used white glitter to add shimmer to them all.  I LOVE the white glitter.  I think it's called Diamond Dust? 

8.  Displaying them I decided to just pile them all onto a vintage white platter with a glittered deer.  I also tied a few to the tops of vintage toy trucks.  The orange truck below was William's "Orange tuck"...that went everywhere with us at age 2.  LUV...LUV...that we kept it tucked away and that I found the for the magical tree forest!  I have them displayed now on a dresser as you walk into our home.  I am seriously thinking about keeping them out all year.  They make me smile. 

Well, there ya go!  Enjoy making some for yourself.  I need to go back and grab another bag or two of trees from Home Depot.  I think next year they'd make fun Christmas gifts.  I've an idea swimming on how to gift them to others!  I'll be sure to share that next year.

Have a lovely weekend.  Today is the last day of school and then a flurry of stuff happens this weekend....then Christmas Eve then Christmas DAY!!!  I'm going to take a week or so off from blogging.  Be sure to follow me on Facebook or Instagram (artsyorange) to see what we are up to over the holiday.  I thank you all for following my little creative journey.  And wish you all a

VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!