Bottle brush trees came back on the scene in the last couple of years and continue to gain popularity. I bought a few last year that I used to decorate with in my girls’ rooms but dove right in this year, finding lots of fun ways to use them in my decor — from place settings, centerpieces and gift wrap accents to snow globes, snack kebabs and garlands.
This season, I grabbed some small and medium sized bottle brush trees from Allen Burn Designs and I loved the fun colors to mix in with my decor in various ways.
If you’re local to Columbia, SC, you can find Allen Burn Designs inside of Ivy House Antiques — my favorite store in town! A lot of the items pictured in this post are Allen Burn Designs and some of the others are other treasures found during my many trips to Ivy House.
Happy decorating, hosting and celebrating as we get closer and closer to Christmas Day!
Place Settings
Aren’t the little bottle brush trees such a fun pop of color on neutral plates? You could add a small wreath on the plate around the tree, tie it to a napkin placed on top or even use it to help hold a place card. So many options!
Gift Wrap Accent
Want to elevate your wrapping? Just grab some twine and then add a bottle brush tree when you tie your bow! I tried this method this year and love the result!
Centerpiece or Mantle Decor
I love the look of all of the different sizes and colors mixed together to make for a beautiful table centerpiece or festive mantle. I planned to do this on our table but missed my opportunity on getting some larger trees. I’ll be adding this to my decor wish list for next year for sure!
Snow Globe
Did you snag the ceramic and glass snow globes from Target’s Bullseye’s Playground this holiday season? Social media has been full of pretty inspo using them to create one of a kind winter wonderlands! Here is a cute one pairing a bottle brush tree with some little reindeer.
Stir Sticks + Specialty Kebabs
Tis the season for hot tea, hot chocolate and hot toddies! How cute would these be to make for an upcoming holiday party?! Just simply grab some of these sticks from your local craft store and with a little bit of hot glue, attach the bottle brush trees to the tops.
I also love the idea of making them into little mini snack kebabs. There’s so many directions you could go with this — charcuterie board skewers, a Bloody Mary kebab, candy kebab for kids, marshmallows and caramels for hot chocolate, meat and cheese, caprese salad on a stick, the list goes on and on! Click here to watch my DIY reel.
Pom Pom Garland
I’ve wanted to try my hand at making pom poms ever since I started seeing them pop up all over social media. But have you seen the yarn aisles at craft stores?! I got super intimidated and had to regroup. Once I had my bearings, I found exactly what I wanted to get started with. I actually already have one of those pom pom making tools you can buy that my mom had given to me from cleaning out her craft stuff but found it easy to just use my hand too. To control size, simply change up the finger width and how many times you loop the yarn. For these poms, I used the width of four fingers with the biggest pom getting 50 loops and the smaller two getting 25 loops. I tied a piece of ribbon tightly around the middle and then used the scissors to cut the top and bottom loops apart. Fluff into a ball and then just use your judgement on trimming to the right shape. (I left the tails of the string I used to tie the center long since that’s how I held while cutting, but also to use this to tie to my garland twine if you don’t want to thread it through.) There are a bunch of easy to follow how-to videos online since it may be hard to get a visual off of this just by reading if you’re a first-timer too.
Once I had my pom poms finished, I attached my bottle brush trees with a tiny dot of hot glue. Then using some twine and a wool needle, I strung together some store-bought white pom poms and wooden beads creating a pattern and then tying in my bottle brush tree pom poms. I absolutely love how it turned out!
This was such a simple project and was fun to do while just enjoying some tv time. I already have new ideas for other pom pom garlands I want to make!
What is your favorite way to use bottle brush trees? Officially one week until Christmas Eve! The countdown is on to Christmas! It’s going to be a full week of holiday magic, crafts, baking, movies and driving around to look at lights!
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