DIY Flock a Christmas Tree, Wreath, or Garland

Welcome to my holiday DIY project! Before we get started, here's a quick before, after, and post decorated pic to show the transformation! It doesn't even look like the same tree!

When it comes to Christmas, I tend to be a bit "extra". What can I say, I LOVE all things Christmas! Last year was a bit of a rough and busy year for us so we didn't even finish decorating the bare minimum (the tree and part of the mantle) until midnight on Christmas Eve, so this year we decided to go all out to make up for last year! We're constantly learning to embrace every stage and year as it comes.

We had our eye on this super fun Twinkly Lights Christmas Tree with 660 lights for a couple years. For a similar look but less lights and less money, this Twinkly Lights Christmas Tree is another option if you're ok with less lights (400 lights). This LED light settings on this tree are crazy fun as you can control the look of the tree from an app and create just about any combination of colors and designs you'd like! From basic warm lights, to multi colored, to the American flag, to pastel rainbow, to candy canes, and to reindeer prancing across the tree! You can even make up your own! The kids just love this tree as it's been a huge hit every Christmas, and they love picking out their favorite colors and designs. You can see a sneak peek of a few of the light designs in the below video too!

A fear years ago, we got super lucky and my husband found this tree on Buy Sell Trade for less than $300. We were ecstatic. The only thing was, we missed the flocked (fake snow) look! So instead of getting a new tree, I decided to figure out how to cost effectively and easily flock the tree myself. Here is the tree before flocking.

So after doing a little research, I found this Snow Flock (the blue bag is their newer, environmentally friendly version). This is another brand of Snow Flock that has great reviews too. My hubs and I ended up flocking the whole tree with a few time saving tips in less than an hour. It was a much easier and quicker project than I expected. I actually ended up flocking 4 wreaths for friends and family, 4 garlands, about 40 evergreen tree picks, and a few mini trees. I guess I went a little flocking crazy! We bought the 25 pound bag and even after doing all these projects, still had about 1/5 of the bag left.

Here is our mantle with the garland and one of the wreaths I flocked. It gave it a very white, snowy Christmas feel.

To flock a tree yourself, watch the below video and learn a few extra tips and tricks!

Here is another garland I flocked that I put outside. Definitely take the time to do this on a tarp (and not while it's already hanging up... ask me how I know). You'll have one heck of a flocking mess to clean up if not!

Here is another wreath I flocked and created from scratch for a friend.

For basic flocking steps (for tree, wreath, or garland):

1. Bring the tree outside and place a large tarp under the tree. Make sure tree is unplugged.

2. Fluff the tree to get the branches how you'd like them and the desired look you want. We placed a large tarp under the tree (definitely do this outside and use a tarp as it gets messy!).

3. Spray sections of the tree with water. If you use a spray bottle, make sure to use a decent one. To save even more time, use a hose on a very fine mist spray setting. Check out the video for more details! This is how we got the tree done in less than an hour!

4. Then using either a sifter or a cup, throw the snow flock on the tree where the tree is wet. We found using a cup worked great! Let it set for a few minutes and then spray the flocked part with water again. Spraying the flocked snow with water is what hardens the snow flock and makes it adhere to the tree.

5. Do a few passes on the tree to get the desired snow look you'd like. We ended up flocking the tree 3 times with snow flock and water.

6. Do a final spray of water all over the tree to set and harden the snow flock.

7. Wait 24 hours and then bring the tree inside and decorate!

NOTES:

• We didn't do anything to the lights as the lights with a light flocked look actually looks very pretty and gives the tree a soft glow. If you want the tree lights very bright though, you could wipe some of the obvious lights off with a rag before the snow flock hardens. We did this on a small section of the tree to compare and still preferred the lights with the flock on it so didn't think it was worth our time.

• You can do this in sections or do all the tree at once.

• This is a permanent process so only do this if you want to keep the snow flock look on your tree!

• There will be a little flock fall off from time to time, so keep that in mind. If an area seems to be having more fall off, add more water with the spray bottle to set it.