Decorating With Tree Branches | At Home With P. Allen Smith

One of the things I love about my friend Mitchell is that she's so clever at finding things
around the house and making gifts out of them. Hi beautiful people. So my friend Allen is
really good at growing things, and I am not. But I do have to make a gift, and most of
my friends do not want store bought gifts. I generally try to make things, but ideas
sometimes run short. This is a really good one and this can go to anybody. So I got this
vase that was going to be thrown away by my neighbor, and I said "Do not throw that away!
I will take it and make something out of it." So I'm going to. I got some, just twigs, really
-- these are breakable. I cut them with scissors, that's how small and light they are. I let
them dry for a couple of days. Now I'm using some scrapbooking paper. I don't need a full
sheet of scrapbooking paper, I can use scraps of scrapbooking paper for this, because what
we're making is really small. These leaves are gonna be very small. I also like using
old magazine pages just for color. Like this comes from an old National Geographic, clearly.
And then I've got this vintage magazine, so I'm just gonna tare, like, this Log Cabin
ad. That will be really cool because we're just gonna get a little bit of the pattern,
but you'll get the good color to it. So what I'm gonna do is just fold this in half and
cut this off. On the fold, I'm doing a little, it's almost like a spade on cards, and you
can make these leaves whatever shape you want -- I'm doing them about and inch and a half
big. But, see, and this will be what the leaf looks like -- we'll have two leaves on either
side, and this is what will attach it to the little limb. And you can use any type of paper
at all. So if you get invited to somebody's birthday party, and you only have 30 minutes,
this will take less time to make than going to Target. I'm using just regular craft bond
spray adhesive, and you really just need a light coat. And I'm laying down a piece of
paper underneath it. You just take it -- see, like this -- and we're gonna fold it around
the limb. I'm gonna go down about this far on this one. And then you just meet it up
and stick it together like a sticker. And I'm following the natural part of the these
little branches and going to where naturally the leaves would be where these little bumps
are. How quick and easy is this? And when you get to the party with this, you're friend
will say "I can't believe you made that for me!" "Ah, this was my favorite present I ever
got." That's what they'll say. So, I think this will be the last one right here. It is
time to put them in the vase. So I'm sticking these in here. I like them all spread out.
If you don't want them all spread out, if you want them a little higher, you can put
a rubber band anywhere around here. But I like, because this is a low vase with really
long limbs, I kinda like it spread out. I think this looks fantastic. But in my sock
drawer, I found some birds. I love these little birds, so I'm gonna put them on this branch.
And really, I'm just gonna wire it on there. Bend that guy. This is a female bird, I've
established. She's gonna sit, oh, let's have her be here. I don't know what kind of bird
she is, but she doesn't, I guess, clearly, doesn't like him because she's looking away.
Ta-dah! How does that look? Tell me that's not a great present. I made this with stuff
I already had laying around my house that you probably do too. And if you don't, somebody
will give you a bird.