Making a $200 Christmas Tree look like a Million Dollar Tree

Here is what the final product looks like...

Every year people come to my house asking how I decorate my tree.  I attending a wonderful tree decorating class at Decorator's Warehouse in Plano, TX and learned a lot there.  They have the MOST BEAUTIFUL trees hands down...but there is no way I can afford $5,000 to $10,000 for a "Starter" tree.  Hello, I am a teacher...so I took the class and figured I would try to learn how to do it myself..so here is how I do it:

I start with a very basic tree.  We have a 9' Pre-lit Paley Pine Martha Stewart Tree that we got at Home Depot last year for around $250 (if I remember correctly).  It has 1800 tips along with berries, pinecones, and branches.  It is beautiful alone...but of course you have to decorate it!

Next you need a cute helper...mine is my daughter who is almost 2.  Excuse the mis-matched outfit and crazy hair...she picked out the outfit and this was around 6:30 a.m.

She thought the tree skirt was a new dress.  :)



To make your spray topper, you will need lots of little sprays (found at Wal-Mart, Hobby Lobby, etc.)

You will need floral (or jewelry) wire to make the most important tree topper part.

Make a circle about the size of your hand or a small dinner plate using the wire.

Slide the wire over the top of your tree.

Add your biggest spray (I like these that have the clips to start out).  I typically buy things in groups of 3s.

Here is a picture showing the three sprays clipped onto the left, middle, and right part of the top of the tree.

Slide the sprays that do NOT have clips into the hoop you made at the top of the tree.  Pile them in!

Here's just the three gold clip sprays and two of the green multi sprays.  I like to pull the green ones down so that they are not just spraying straight up, but also covering some of the other part of the top of the tree.

More and more spray...

And some more...

Here it is so far...

And more sprays - these are glittered flowers.

And an upclose of it so far...

Now to add some accessories.  These are leaves I bought at Decorator's Warehouse (Plano, TX) for about $12 each.  I then added ribbon (as they taught me in the class).  KEEP THE STEMS ON.  Make a loop, and with floral wire attach the ribbon to the stem of the flower/leaf.

Attach it to the tree and let the ribbon flow down the tree.  Twist and turn the ribbon through the branches.

I then attached a ball to another type of curly spray (got at Wal-Mart) for about $2.

Attach it to the tree.

Another so far picture (where you can see the 3 leaves attached and their ribbons cascading down the tree).

 Next add more details - this time I used beautiful flowers (also from Decorator's Warehouse) that were about $6 each (another splurge but they make a BIG statement).

This shows the floral wire attached to the ribbon.

And here it is in the tree.

Another type of spray along with the wire attached to the ribbon (where you can see the loop too).

My next type of spray - this time I used 3 ribbons instead of 1 or 2.

 

Here is the front of the spray decoration with the ribbon. 

Another updated picture of the tree so far...

More flowers (this one is great because it has a clip - from Garden Ridge)

Finally add in all your ornaments in all the small places until you don't see many blank spaces.

And now a few close-ups of the final tree.

And some more close ups...

And the final product...

The biggest secret...lots of glitter...it just makes everything look better!!! 

And the FINAL PRODUCT!