The idea for my tree’s paintbrush garland this year came like this: I need paintbrush garland for my art studio.
I love how the garland looks on the Christmas tree and I’m going to keep it out all year long (just not on the tree):
I’ll never throw out a used paintbrush again:
It would also be cool decor for an art teacher, a classroom, a craft booth or an art party:
I do try to take pretty good care of my paintbrushes so I didn’t have nearly enough to create a long enough garland so I bought a few packs of the cheapest, economy paintbrushes Michaels carries:
After opening up the packs:
The first thing I did was put on plastic gloves. I dipped my fingers into some dark wood stain and then haphazardly applied the stain to portions of the paintbrushes. This was my aging stage:
For the next step I used leftover outdoor paints from my concrete deer painting projects. These paints are a little bit thicker than regular craft paint. I dipped and poured and mixed the brushes together until they were covered with enough paint. I made sure that the bristles had extra paint on them so that they would dry together into clumps. Then I let them dry overnight.
I drilled holes into the handles of each of the paint brushes. I attached the brushes together using a colorful craft twine (found in the jewelry section at Michaels). I used a “knit picker” to poke a hole through the clumped paint brushes and pull the string through. (Note: On a few paintbrushes there wasn’t enough paint on the bristles to create a strong enough hold so I squeezed some hot glue inside them above where the hole was poked.)
The finished garland!
I love it so much I could marry it.
Just a note about my tree, I actually attached the garland in smaller pieces so that it didn’t have to go around the back of the tree!
You can see the entire art-themed tree here and all the other ornaments I made! Thanks for reading!
Vintage Art Supplies on a Christmas Tree – Michaels Makers Dream Tree Challenge 2017
