How NOT To DIY Flock A Christmas Tree

A few years ago I learned how NOT to DIY flock a Christmas tree. In case you would like to flock a real tree or a faux tree, you may find a few tips from my experience to save you time, money, and energy. 

Now is the time to buy the artificial snow before suppliers sell out for the season. You can wait until later to actually apply the DIY snow, but if you wait to buy supplies until you are ready to flock your tree in December, you may not be able to get the artificial flocking snow. 

Tree branches laden with clumps of white snow . . .  Dreams of a snowy Christmas tree danced in my head. A vision of fresh snow piled on evergreen branches as if the tree were standing in an open forest glen surrounded by snow drifts was what I saw in my mind's eye. 

H o w   N o t   t o   F l o c k   

A   C h r i s t m a s   T r e e  

With inspiration from photos in magazine pages and internet blogs, Pinterest, and Instagram, I found images about how a snowy tree looks naturally. Then I gathered supplies to transform a beautiful freshly-cut evergreen tree into a flocked Christmas tree. 

Materials

• Fresh evergreen tree
• Artificial Snow 
• Drop Cloth 

An 8-9 foot Fraiser fir fresh tree was the most important part of the quest for a flocked Christmas tree. 

I bought 3 cans of artificial snow spray. While the directions on the can of artificial snow stated the snow was designed for indoor use only, that means the artificial snow is not designed for use on outdoor trees or the outside of windows. The snow is not weatherproof. 

APPLY the artificial snow outside since the snow goes on as a foggy mist. You do not want to inhale the snowy mist, nor do you want the overspray to cover your floors, walls, and furniture. Also, a large open exterior area gives you room to walk all around the tree as you apply the snow. 

Spread out a large drop cloth on an open deck under the tree to protect the deck from artificial overspray. 

Flocking Process

The first application gave the tree an overall white look without any clumps of snow. 

Spray underneath the branches for uniform color, but this is optional. In nature, snow only lies on top of the branches. You may want your tree to have white on top of the branches only and be green on the underside of the branches. 

Repeated applications of artificial spray snow built up the snow. 

To create as natural look as possible, apply the snow on the outer tips of the branches, but not on the parts of the branches protected by branches above it. 

After repeated snow applications, the outer tips of the branches began to accumulate small clumps of artificial snow. 

However, the clumps collapsed after a few minutes. The branches were pretty, but not covered with new fallen snow drifts. 

There were small patches of built-up snow that did not last long. 

At this point, I reread the fine-print directions on the artificial spray snow can. 

"... spray snow delivers a natural look for highlighting the tips of evergreen branches and accenting wreaths and centerpieces. It is not designed to fully flock trees. " 

Using artificial spray snow from a can is 

NOT how to DIY flock a Christmas tree. 

Other DIY flocking supplies from online suppliers were sold out for the season. After allowing the artificial snow to dry, I decided to keep the tree with its overall white color without layers of fallen snow drifts.  It was too late to try another method of do-it-yourself flocking products and alternative styles to flocking such as white furry garlands and fluffy cleaning pads weren't quite what I envisioned. 

Here is how the tree looked after all the artificial spray snow dried. No layers of snow anywhere. 

While the tree did not match the visions of a snowy Christmas tree in my head, it was a beautiful white background for white and silvery ornaments.

If you want large snow-flocked drifts on your tree, buy "bonding flock - white snow" designed to create a true flocked look. Buy it as soon as you can before suppliers sell out for the year. Bonding flock is available online and comes as a dry powder to which you add water and apply to tree branches. The flocking forms large clumps that do not collapse like the artificial spray snow in a can.

~~~~❦~~~~

The holidays will be different this year, but we are still planning, creating, decorating, cooking ... 

for sheer joie de vivre 

(joy of living)

We are decorating a Christmas tree, flocked or not. And probably more than one Christmas tree. Yes, I know more than one tree. 

Stay safe, and create a little joy everyday.  

 

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