DIY Bottle Brush Trees

I love bottle brush trees…some of my earliest finds were so inexpensive, but the cost has soared with their popularity! Its incredibly easy to make your own forest of trees in any colors you like with some Sisal Trees, Bleach & Dye. Many commercially available bottle brush trees are made with plastic  instead of sisal fiber, so check to be sure when buying your supplies! Michael’s and Hobby Lobby are pretty reliable sources for sisal trees.

What you Need:

• 2 bowls or tubs for bleach solution and rinse water, deep enough to submerge your trees. I use 2 large stainless steel mixing bowls that fit in my kitchen sink.

• sheet pans/cookie sheets lined with paper towels for drying bleached/dyed trees

• tongs/slotted spoon or rubber gloves

• household bleach

• Rit liquid dyes

• Rit Dye Color Chart https://www.ritdye.com/color-formulas A rainbow of color formulas with no guesswork!

Bleaching Trees

✦ mix 4 parts hot water to 1 part bleach in one bowl. fill the other bowl with cool water to rinse your trees

✦ place a test tree in the bleach solution to see how long it takes to lose that ugly green color.

✦ when its done, use a slotted spoon or tongs to lift and drain the tree. place into Rinse Water

✦ let your tree rinse a few minutes. hold upside down to drain. Gently shake to remove excess water.

✦ place your trees on the paper towel lined trays

✦ gently smooth their shape and stand upright to dry

Dyeing Trees

✦ Decide on your color or use a formula from the Rit Color Chart. Prepare your dye bath according to the instructions in a container deep enough to fully submerge your trees ( I use a pair of tongs to hold them under if they want to float)

✦ Dyeing is never an exact science…Rit’s directions call for hot hot water because they’re designed for fabric. That super hot water can be tough on larger trees especially, so I tend to use cooler temps and longer dyeing time to achieve darker colors.

✦ for lighter pastel pink and turquoise trees I dilute my dye 4:1 and dip, count to 3, rinse until I get the amount of color I want.