I just finished the last part in a series that has taken 2 1/2 years to come full circle. I have been waiting to show you this project for what seems like forever, but I didn’t want to post anything until the entire project was complete. That day has finally come, and I couldn’t be more excited! This is like no other project that I have ever done, and it has become very near and dear to my heart. There is a lot of information to cover, so I have decided to break my story up into two parts. In this first post, I will concentrate on the project itself, and, in my second post, I’ll focus more on the design concept, with plenty of step-by-step pictures.

Let me start at the beginning…..

This project began with my quest to find a Christmas tree for my mother. She lives in a retirement community, and, in November of 2020, the facility was in full lockdown due to COVID. She hadn’t had any in-person visits since the spring, and, with the holidays approaching, I wanted to make sure that she had a sweet little Christmas tree to brighten her space and lift her spirits.

I envisioned her having an artificial, table-top tree that was lighted and had colorful decorations. Leading up to the holidays, you can find artificial pre-lit evergreen trees everywhere, and some come with decorations. The one caveat is that in order to follow the facility’s safety regulations, I needed the tree to be battery operated. Since the evergreen trees are plug-in, I needed to look for other options.

I happened to be in a local gift shop when I spotted this lighted birch tree.

The minute I saw it, I knew that I had found my mother’s Christmas tree. It wasn’t what I originally had in mind, but this was a lighted, table-top tree that was battery operated. And, not only was it battery operated; it even had a 6-hour timer feature! As I stood there looking at this tree, I decided that a white tree was going to showcase the decorations much better than an evergreen, so I purchased the tree and headed home to concentrate on the decorations.

By the time I pulled into the garage, I knew exactly what I was going to make for the decorations–birdhouses! Yes, birdhouses, and it was all thanks to a new stamp set I had received earlier in the week.

The set included dies that made the side, peak pieces for tiny birdhouses. I was still going to need to figure out how to make a box and a roof, but I thought if I could do that, these birdhouses would be perfect to hang on the birch tree branches. After a lot of trial and error, I was able to make a cube to go in-between the side pieces, and I was also able to make a roof out of designer Christmas paper:

And, when I assembled all of the pieces together, it made the cutest little bird house! I am not an engineer by any means, but I was able to figure out all of the measurements and create this really sweet decoration. I was so excited about my success that I went back to the gift shop and bought more trees so that I could give these as gifts to other family members, along with one for our house! So now I had a total of 6 trees to decorate!

After deciding that each tree looked good with 6 bird houses, I quickly got busy making 36 of them. This took more time that I had anticipated, as there were a lot of pieces to die-cut and assemble. I also decided that the trees needed more decorations than just the houses, so I also made some double-sided pine trees and glittery snowflakes, which filled in more of the branches and added more charm and sweetness to the tree. Here are some pictures of a finished set on and off one of the trees:

I get goosebumps every time I look at these pictures! This is the sweetest, most unique Christmas tree I’ve ever seen, and I made every single one of the decorations. A lot of love and ingenuity went into this project, and I’m really proud of how it turned out. I was anxious to get these trees wrapped and in the mail, but there was one final thing I needed to do:

Decorations this fragile needed a box, so I custom designed a box by laying out all of the decorations on grid paper to get the measurements.

Not only will this box help protect the ornaments during shipping, but it will provide a designated place to store the decorations off season. Once I had all 6 boxes made, I quickly wrapped everything up and got them in the mail. I’m happy to report that everyone loved their trees and decorations, and I felt a great sense of pride and accomplishment at what I had been able to create.

This is the perfect place to end this post, but it’s not the end of this project. I hope you’ll be able to come back for the rest of the story….. In the meantime, have a wonderful week, and, as always, remember:

“May the waves kiss your feet, / the sand be your seat, / and your friends out-number the stars.”

-C-