Ever have one of those craft ideas that you were sure would turn out perfect…and was a perfect craft fail? Yup, this project started out as one of those. I’m sure you’ve seen those lovely coffee filter wreath out on the internet. I had this wonderful idea to make some coffee filter trees. I simply started hot gluing filters onto a floral foam tree form. I got about halfway up…and hated it. And in addition to hating it, I realized that the poofy coffee filters made the tree too wide to sit on my mantel.

Well shoot.

So I tore off all those filters—I even managed to salvage the forms, with only a few bumps of hot glue that would not come off. So what to do? I needed something to add to my holiday mantel, and I had these tree forms that I had purchased on clearance….and then inspiration struck. If you knit or crochet, I am certain that you have in your stash a skein or two of yarn that just will not cooperate.


This red yarn was perfect when I made an Elmo hat for my nephew a while back, but it was really, really, difficult to knit with. So it sat in the back of my stash, until I was looking for a way to cover up these tree forms that would make a fun, Christmassy look.

I settled on making some candy cane trees. All I needed for two trees were:

2 tree forms (look for ones on clearance--you can fix broken pieces with hot glue!)

2 skeins of yarn (one red, one white)—I used a fuzzy kind I had on hand, and I really liked the fun texture it added

2 galvanized buckets—I used some I found on clearance at the Target dollar spot.
Green washi tape

Scissors.

You’re going to be surprised at how fast and easy this project will go. Simply wrap the yarn around the tree form. I made bands of red and white which were about 2 inches high each. When I finished with a band, I tucked the ends under—no tying!

When I got done with the bands, I realized that my trees looked more Dr. Seuss Cat-in-the-Hat like and less candy cane, so I added a small band (just one strand of red high) in the middle of each white band.

All that remained was to place each tree on top of the buckets with a little bit of washi tape for an accent. I love it when a plan comes together, especially when it starts as a big, fat fail!

And...here's my mantle for Christmas.