Pinterest - Plastic Spoon Trees

A few days before Christmas, I saw this awesome pin about making Christmas trees out of plastic spoons (plastic spoons Christmas trees). I was really intrigued and looked at the post. My husband, an artist, saw what I was looking at it and told me that we totally should do that project together.

If you click on the link above, it will take you to the webpage of the project. We liked the idea of the plastic spoon tree, and we were a bit disappointed that it didn't provide the type of details we wanted. My husband (keep in mind this is coming from his mind that has done tons of sculptors) wanted more details about the specifications for each tree (for example, the diameter of the base of the tree, the height of the tree, and the amount of spoons needed to cover the tree). But, the post did a pretty good job showing how the trees were constructed with lots of pictures. Plus, I like the site's other ideas of creating Christmas trees!

We wanted to make some trees that can be displayed for Christmas as well as the months following it especially since we started this after the New Year.

Step 1:

We first made the tree form from heavy cardboard paper. My husband got this from his work and it was perfect for the project. We started out with a piece that was 19"x23" and it turned out to be 11" longer than we needed it. We wanted to make a tree that was about 12 inches long. The post said to make tree form using paper mache and we experimented with two ways of doing the paper mache.

Paper mache recipes are basically equal parts of water and adhesive. We did 2 tablespoons adhesive and 2 tablespoons water. My husband did two different batches because he wanted to see if there was a difference with using glue or flour. And, there is! Using Elmer's glue definitely makes a much sturdier tree (left) and spreads out easier than the flour paper mache (right). We recommend using glue as the adhesive.

Step 2:

Cut and spray paint the spoons. We first sprayed the spoons with blue and then sprayed them with yellow. When you look at the spoons far away, it gives a green appearance. Upon closer inspection, one can see the the blue and yellow spray paint. (Note: you want to cut the spoons with a slightly longer stem so it is easier to glue them onto the tree form. We say about 1/4 inch).

Step 3 - The Finished Product:

We assembled the tree by gluing the spoons onto the tree form using hot glue. It looks awesome. It ended up being about 13 inches high due to the added height of the spoons. We ended up using 95 spoons for a 12 inch tree form with a diameter of 3.5 inches at the base.

 
Would I recommend doing this pin:  

Yes, with two thumbs up! Click here to go to the website: Plastic Spoon Christmas Trees

Future project:

We are currently working on doing another tree. We are going to do a tree using blue and silver spray paint. We really loved how the blue and yellow spray paint turned out! Stay tuned because I will post those pictures later.