Framed Christmas Ornament Tree!

Framed Christmas Ornament Tree!

That makes sense right?

It's a bunch of ornaments, in the shape of a Christmas tree, hot glued together and...framed. Dang, I'm a wordsmith!

Enough with the wordsmithing and let me show you how I made this thing.

The Frame

-Wood, I used cedar

-Picture Frame molding

-A saw to cut the wood

-Wood glue and nails to attach the molding

-Stain for the wood

-Paint for the frame

-Wax or topcoat to add razzle-dazzle to the frame

The Ornament Tree

-Ornaments: I used 3cm and 2cm.

-Hot glue gun with glue sticks

-Screws to hold up the ornament tree.

It all started with scrap wood. Scrap cedar board and salvaged picture frame molding to be exact. For real, I have so much scrap wood stacked up all over the workshop. All over the place! It's a problem, I'm told.

I fixed up the molding by filling in the holes with wood putty. All you need to do is fill in, let dry and sand. It's better to go with multiple thin applications, because the putty will dry quicker.

I used an all-purpose sealer before painting. I like doing this to old painted wood before repainting, because it prevents the seeping out of anything in the old wood and gives excellent adhesion to old and overcoat paints. You don't need to really sand either.

I applied two coats of this Christmassy looking dark green milk paint and even wore a Santa hat! When it's dry, bust out the Annie Sloan clear wax! This stuff makes colors pop and your wallet cry! I live in Japan and have you seen the exchange rate lately? Holy moly!!

If you don't want to get your wax brush dirty...or in my case, your wife says "Don't touch my wax brushes, Bryan!", just apply the wax with a rag and buff to a shine with a clean rag.

Don't touch your wife's wax brushes.

Now the cedar board! Lightly sand for a rustic/weathered look. Cedar wood has a natural mill glaze on its surface. This needs to be sanded well for woodworking, but for projects like this, the mill glaze looks cool. Lightly sand and immediately stain, because this is when the wood is most receptive to absorbing stain. All types of finishes are suitable for cedar too.

I applied one coat of Watco medium walnut oil stain.

I attached the frame, one piece at a time to the cedar wood using fast drying wood glue and screws. Drill screws in from the back of the cedar wood taking care not to use screws too long or too short.

Now for the ornaments.

I used 3cm and 2cm.

The framed cedar is about 480cm X 480cm and the smaller ornaments will look cute. I'm too manly to understand the concept of cute, but I've been told that this Framed Christmas Ornament Tree is:  Cute.

So, take out all of the cutie patootie, little adorable.....I mean grrrr, man!

Shotgun a beer and rip off the tops of every ornament while howling at the ceiling. UFC! UFC!

You're going to hot glue all of the ornaments into a removable tree shape and the easiest way to do this is:

-Glue the top ornament to the cedar wood.

It'll easily pull off later and the hot glue will not bond or ruin the wood finish.

-Try your best to hide the hot glue, applying it to the sides only where the ornaments touch. There will be hot glue strings everywhere, but these are easily cleaned off of the ornaments. If you get a blob on top, don't worry. You can carefully cut it away and scrape it off.

Keep gluing them to each other using the cedar wood. After about 9 rows, you can pull it off of the wood and apply more hot glue to the back of the ornament tree, making it sturdy. After about 9 rows, gently pull it off of the cedar wood, flip it and add hot glue to the back where the ornaments touch. It'll look messy on the back, but nice in the front.

Kinda like a mullet.

You have a triangle and can rotate it anyway to whatever looks like the best tree. My tree looked better rotated a different way.

I glued the 2cm ornaments right on top.

Can you see the two screws? Those are what hold the ornament tree to the cedar wood. I'm going to remove the tree when I store it.

That's it! I hot glued that pinecone to the bottom and hung it on the wall.

I'm glad I keep all of my scrap wood!