Taylor and I were inspired by these amazing Tree Stumps by BlockPartyPress that we saw on flickr. We really wanted to create our own, so we also thought we would share a tutorial on how we made them with you!
With the exception of the paint and felt, everything that these trees are made out of is recycled. We used empty oatmeal containers, toilet paper rolls, and newspaper to create them.
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Supplies: A variety of paper cardboard tubes, masking tape or hot glue, newspaper, flour, water, acrylic paint, paint brushes, felt
1. Assemble the "logs". Use masking tape and hot glue to attach smaller paper tubes to larger ones.
The best way to cut the small paper tubes is at an angle.
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2. Mix up a batch of paper mache, here's our recipe:
3 cups of water
1 cup of flour
3.Dip strips of newspaper into the paper mache and cover your logs in them. They don't have to be super smooth, logs shouldn't be perfect. ;)
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4. Let the paper mache dry.
5. Paint your logs using acrylic paints. Depending on the color paint you use, it might take more than one coat to completely cover the newspaper. We did 2 coats of paint. Let that dry.
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6. Taking a slightly darker shade of paint, Paint woodgrain onto your logs. This is really easy, just a combination on squiggly lines, swirls and ovals.
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7. Cut out felt circles to cover the ends, hot glue on, and you're done!
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I love anything with woodgrain, and these will definitely be going in our studio in our new apartment!
Have you made any fun recycled crafts lately? What did you upcycle?