Artsy Decorative Trees

I remember creating this sculpture for a high school project and decided I wanted one to decorate my home. It's a beautiful and simple wire tree with wood base and tissue paper leaves.

Any gauge jewelry wire in any color you want, I chose black.

Small, wooden base of any size or shape.

Drill

Tissue paper (again, of any color. I chose red.)

Scissors or this fancy hole punch scrap book thing from Martha Stewart

Mod Podge or glue

Brush (optional)

Hot glue gun + glue (optional)

The wire will be going through the base in order to create a trunk. So draw 5+ dots where you would like your trunk to emerge from. Then drill through (if you're under 18, please ask your parents for help or at least supervision).

Not people, but the tissue paper. If you are, in fact, using the punch than I would suggest folding up the paper and going through many layers. It will create a cleaner cut. If you are just hand cutting, than feel free to create any sized/shaped leaf you would like. 

Make lots of them.

Try to cut different lengths of wire, then group two or three of them together and braid or twist them as pleases you. Thread these through the base and begin to form them into the shape of a tree.

When you find yourself having a hard time keeping the wire in place i.e. they're moving all around their holes, then just hot glue them to the base.

Mod podge/glue one side of a leaf, place it on the end of a 'branch' and cover it with another leaf to hold it in place. I really like the way the tissue paper hardens and sometimes curls. Every once in a while, I'll have a cat decide to chew on it and the leaves fall off. They're easily replaceable but if you'd like you're more than welcome to change this formula so they are more permanently secured.