DIY Bottle Brush Trees

Wow, I really am no good at updating my blog. Time just goes by way too fast and I just realized it's been almost 2 months since I've even looked at my blog. I'm awesome.
Moving on, it is now the end up of November which means...Christmas crafting is in full force. The past week I made a mini light up marquee sign which turned out being the biggest pain. Trying to string the lights was a disaster, hence why there are punched holes, and no lights poking through. So now I have uneven lights and open holes...whatever, I suppose it's still cute. And for $6, I can't complain.

 I've also made these adorable little bottle brush trees.  My color scheme is gold and cream and decided this year to add a little color. I'm head over heels in love with the pink vintage Christmas decor, so I thought why not dye some little trees pink? I'm super excited to start decorating on Friday, even though I'm going without a mantle this year :(  I did have big plans to construct a fake fireplace but somehow I've just not been motivated to follow through. Maybe after the new year.
Anyways, I had a few people ask me how I made them so I figured I'd just do a tutorial on the blog. The whole project cost me just under $15 and took about an hour from start to finish, minus drying and decorating. If you shop at Michaels make sure you use your 40% or 50% coupon to buy your Rit Dye. It might only save you $2, but hey, that pays for a large Diet Coke from Wendy's right there :) Although, it might end up costing a little more if you don't have any of the supplies on hand, but everything is pretty inexpensive to buy.:

Supplies:
1 pack of Lemax bottle brush trees (found mine at Michaels for 50% off)
Rit Dye in the color of your choice (I used fuchsia)
1 TBS salt
1 jug of bleach
Rubber Gloves
Plastic bin

Start by pulling out all of your trees from their plastic wrapping.

Now take you plastic bin and fill it with bleach. Someone said they only used 3 capfulls, I used half a bottle. I was doing 10 trees at a time and had zero amount of patience. I figured the more bleach I used, the faster the process? I also added enough warm water to almost submerge all of my trees (laying down). The trees will almost immediately start to lift color.

 Make sure you  flip the trees over so every spot gets bleached. While my trees were soaking, I put my rubber gloves on and start rubbing the trees, making sure the bleach was really getting in there. I was also rubbing off the fake snow that's on the trees. After my trees were pretty white (about 15-20 min) I rinsed my bin out and filled it with warm soapy water.  I added my bleached trees to it and gave them a good scrubbing.

Then rinsed them off really good and placed them on towels, use ones you don't care about. I then repeated that process with the rest of the trees.

Once all of your trees have been bleached, washed and set aside, you can start making your Rit dye concoction. Follow the directions on how to mix it and add a tbs of salt. Here is where you'll want to wear your gloves again so you don't dye your fingers. I dipped my tree in just long enough to make sure it was evenly covered, pulled it out and rinsed it under water. If the color was too light, I'd dip it again and rinse, and repeat until desired color is achieved. I really love the look of the lighter colored trees and wish I would have done the majority of my trees lighter rather than darker.

 None the less, they're still pretty cute. Once you're done dying your trees, place them on your towels to dry. It'll take about a day to dry completely, and once they're dry you can fluff them because they'll look all clumpy and sad. Now you can keep them as is, or you can spray a little glue on them and sprinkle them with glitter. Or you can buy some cute little pearls and glue them on to their branches. Or whatever else you fancy. And then you get to stare at them, fall in love with them and display them.

I still need to glitter mine, I'm just dreading it. Too much of a mess to handle at the moment. 

Hope this helps those who had questions. It's pretty easy. Basically just bleach, wash, dye, rinse, dry. Enjoy!