12 Days of DIY Christmas: Day Nine - Stick Tree

Where do I begin with this one? I made it up as I went along, so how I made it, is not the most easiest or fastest way. I'll explain how I would do it next time, not how I did it.


It's an easy thing to make, but time consuming....or maybe it was time consuming because I had no idea what I was doing. I just had this idea and went ahead without planning or thinking....like I normally do.


Also, it was totally free to make because we had everything already...aren't those kind of crafts the best?



Grab a tomato cage and make sure it's standing straight (mine was not and I didn't think about that until it was full of sticks). Grab a few straight sturdy sticks and weave them in between each section of cage...





Then start winding the lights around the cage. I decided to add lights after I was half done...this made adding the lights very hard and took a couple of evenings because I didn't want the light wire on the outside of my sticks. I had to work behind and around them....tedious. Use wire to attach them to the cage.






Then add your sticks. I started with the longer sturdier ones to sort of frame it all and make a point at the top. Attach them using wire...





And keep adding sticks until the end of time...




Start at the bottom. If you can find sticks that curve out....even better...





Keep adding sticks...this is where I ran out of the more discreet wire and had to use the green stuff. However, by the time I got to the top and weaved different sticks in, the green was hidden.






I used a variety of different sticks from around our yard. It's not very pretty in the day...just a mess of sticks.






But I kinda love it lit up...






I have a feeling I'm going to take it all apart after Christmas and redo it all. Because of my process my tree looks a little sloppy and messier then I'd like it too. The lights also aren't distributed evenly enough.


I may be an underachiever but when it comes to these kind of things in my house, I can be a bit of a perfectionist. It will annoy me if I don't fix it.


I also need to add some other things to our front deck....ideas? I'm thinking some twig round globe things. Or next year making 2 smaller trees...