Colorful Glitter Bottle Brush Christmas Tree Display

I think you’ll agree with me on this one:

Bottle brush trees are an iconic piece of Christmas decor.

I love how easy they are to find nowadays. And I love how easy it was for me to turn these basic bottle brush trees into a gorgeous piece of Christmas decor perfect for my mantle.

Read more for my easy-to-follow tutorial so you can take a plain bottle brush tree and turn it into any color you want without using any dye!

Colorful Glitter Bottle Brush Christmas Tree Display Supplies:

• bottle brush trees (I ordered these from Amazon because well duh, Prime, plus I got a pack of 24)
• bleach
• spray adhesive (this is the kind I used)
• paint brush
• extra fine glitter (whatever you do, make sure you use this extra fine glitter!)
• white acrylic paint
• wood board (I used a “hobby board” from Home Depot)
• spray Mod Podge
• hot glue gun
• regular Mod Podge
• white glitter/Diamond Dust
• gloves

Step One: Prepare the hobby board

I didn’t take photos of the first step because its pretty self explanatory. I took the “hobby board” and sanded the edges with fine sandpaper. Then, I gave it 2 coats of white acrylic paint and let it dry while I did the next step.

Step Two: Let your bottle brush trees soak in a bleach bath

This is what the trees looked like to start. Adorable, yes. But I wanted mine to SPARKLE!

Here are the bottle brush trees after their bleach bath:

I wasn’t exact and didn’t measure out the ratio, but it was approximately 2/3 bleach to 1/3 water. I wanted them to bleach quickly.

I let them soak while every so often working the bleach into the bristles gently. Make sure you wear gloves.

Once they got to an almost white color (I knew they would be covered in glitter, so I didn’t mind if they didn’t get totally white) I rinsed them well under hot water and then gave them another soap and water bath.

I let mine dry overnight (since I didn’t finish them until about 8:00 PM). Make sure they are completely dry before moving on.

Step Three: Apply adhesive to your bottle brush trees

If you’re lucky enough to live in a warm climate, you’re going to want to do this next step outdoors. I, on the other hand, had to cover my carpet with layers of newspaper and crack open the patio door to let out the fumes.

Grab your spray adhesive and, working with one tree at a time, spray it making sure to get into all of the bristles.

Step Four: Apply the glitter to your trees

Immediately after spraying, grab your glitter and sprinkle it very generously on the tree. If it doesn’t seem to grab in a certain spot, respray with a little adhesive and sprinkle with more glitter.

As you may notice, I’m not wearing gloves in this photo. After 9 trees and layers of glue and glitter getting shellacked onto my hands, I finally got smart and put on some gloves. I recommend you learn from me and do this right away.

Repeat the spraying/glittering process for all of the trees.

Here they are, all 24 of them, after the glitter. Why 24? Because that’s how many came in a pack and there must be no tree left behind!

I went with a wintery color scheme, but you could choose any colors.

But I definitely learned something in this step of the process:

I was using 2 different brands of glitter because I’m a craft supply hoarder and had 2 gigantic multi packs of extra fine glitter on hand. I found that the Martha Stewart glitter was much better to work with. The glitter itself was finer, so it got into the crevices easier and the colors it came in were prettier.

I never thought I could become a fine glitter brand snob, but here we are.

Step Five: Seal in the glitter

First, make sure you are in an extremely well ventilated area. This stuff is STINKY.

Then douse, and I mean douse, the trees in the Mod Podge sealant. I had to repeat this step twice because some of the glitter was falling off.

Let the trees dry completely before moving on.

Step Six: Prepare and attach the trees to your hobby board

Using a paint brush, carefully paint the bases of the trees white with acrylic paint. Let dry about 20 minutes.

After they had dried, I arranged the trees on the board. Once I found an arrangement I liked, using a hot glue gun, I attached them to the board.

Step Seven: Apply “snow” to your hobby board and tree bases

I used these supplies only because I had them at home already. You could experiment with any white/clear granules.

I didn’t use any sort of measuring for this, I just dumped Mod Podge, white glitter, the Diamond Dust, and the glass glitter beads into a cup until it was the consistency of frosting. That’s the best description I can give 😉

Taking the “snow” mixture and paint brush, splotch it onto the board into whatever texture you would like. Yep, splotch is now a crafting term.

Splotch: to throw a crafting medium onto a surface haphazardly leaving behind texture 😉

Make sure you splotch the “snow” nice and close to the bases of the trees. Let it dry a few hours.

And that’s it! 😉

I guarantee, you will treasure these glittery bottle brush trees forever and ever and ever.

UPDATE 2019: I originally posted this tutorial in 2013, and I am still treasuring these trees 🙂

If you liked this bottle brush tree DIY, check out my other favorite DIY Christmas Projects:

• Vintage Wooden Thrift Store Christmas Tree Makeover
• “Merry & Bright” Free Christmas Banner Printable
• Vintage Christmas Ornament Wreath Tutorial
• DIY Wrapping Paper That’s Too Pretty to Rip Open!