DIY mini burlap Christmas trees (for less than $2 total!)

Last month was a whirlwind. October is birthday month in our family, with Oliver, Carter, Scarlett and Mya all celebrating their big days--which means a lot of celebrations, a lot of cake, a lot of booked weekends, a lot of excited kids and a lot of busy, tired parents. Then, to top it off, Mya's friends all decided to be born in October as well, so we have been dropping her off at a different birthday party each weekend, all month long. 

But, it's November now, and just as the chaos of birthday crazy has died down, Christmas crazy has begun. 

Well, begun in this household anyways. 

Because Christmas is my absolute favourite. 

FAVOURITE. 

So I've quietly been sneaking out Christmas decorations in anticipation of it actually being a reasonable time to start decorating. So in the spirit of DIY'ing it this Christmas, I thought I'd pass along an adorable little Christmas idea that is super easy to make, and ridiculously cheap to make. Even if you're not a crafty soul, I promise you you'll be able to do this. 

Mini burlap Christmas trees.

How cute are these?!

They can be used as a table centre piece (as I'm using them for), or they would be cute up on a fireplace mantel or just on a side table or shelf. Pretty much adorable any way you choose to use them.

If you head into those fancy little Christmas shops you'll see these adorable little burlap trees, sitting on the shelf for an outrageous price. OR, you can make them yourself for almost nothing. 

So, after doing a little searching online, I discovered that all that I needed was this:

-a few sandwich Ziplock bags 

-some soil (or rice, or sand--whatever you have on hand), 

-some ribbon & a few elastic bands 

-burlap

-some greenery

-xmas balls

-that green spongy stuff that you stick flowers in to keep them put (whatever it's called) *see pic below

So here is how I made them:

Decide how many trees you want to make, and then fill the appropriate number of sandwich bags with soil, rice or sand. I made 3, so I've got 3 bags going here. I just dug up some dirt from my garden for these.

  

Then place that green spongy thing on top (I cut mine to size). 

Cut your burlap to size. *Place the burlap under the dirt, as seen in this pic, and wrap it up to cover the green foamy thing, then cut the burlap to make sure that the green foam and dirt won't show.

Then cut a few tiny branches of greenery off of the trees around your house (I cut mine from my Blue Spruce tree in my backyard, but if you don't have one in your backyard you can buy greenery at any hardware store like Lowes or Home Depot these days) --or quietly go for a walk late at night around your neighbourhood with some discreet clippers in your hand. 

Once you have shoved that greenery into the foam thing, wrap your burlap up and around the "tree" like a present, and secure it with an elastic band. Then add your ribbon.

This (below) is what they will look like before you trim the excess burlap and add your sparkly Christmas balls.

 Trim the excess burlap down to however you want it to look like, then start adding your tiny Christmas balls (found at Dollarama right now for only $1.50! for a whole box!).

And that's it! Adorable little Christmas trees. 

These cost me $1.50 total since I had everything on hand except the balls--so I'd say that's a pretty cheap centre piece! 

Happy decorating everyone!

More yummy dessert recipes coming your way for the holidays soon.

And on a more serious note, love to Paris and everyone impacted by violence all over the world. xoxo

Erica