Supplies:
- Two packages of this garland from Dollar tree. (you may need more or less depending on the size of your tree.)
- Three dowel rods. I purchased very long dowel rods from dollar tree (during the summer in the cookout section) and was able to get all three pieces out of the one dowel rod.
- Hot glue and hot glue gun
- Brown floral tape. I purchased mine from JoAnn Fabrics.
- A wooden stand. I purchased mine from Hobby Lobby. It came in a two pack. You could also use a slice of wood as your base. I think the bark look would look nice.
- Paint or stain if you decided to color your wooden base.
- Something to cut the dowel rods and garland. I used cutters.
I started off by cutting my dowel rods down to size. I was able to get three rods that were about 10.5 inches each out of the one very long dowel rod. Feel free to make your tree as big or small as you would like. Next, I used a little of the floral tape to hold the three dowel rods together at the top and bottom.
Now it is time to cut the garland. I started with the pieces that will go at the very top. I just roughly eyeballed what I thought looked to be a good length. The length I went with for my tree was about 11 inches. These measurements will differ depending on the size of your tree. I decided to do four groups of two strands of garland at this length. So, I needed eight 11 inch strips of garland. I then hot glued my strips roughly evenly around my tree grouping them into twos. I recommend applying hot glue on the dowel rod first and holding the end of the garland into the hot glue until it dries, then apply more hot glue over the top of the garland to really secure it in place. At first I just applied the hot glue and did not hold it in place. The weight of the garland caused the glue to not hold. So, it really does help to hold it in place for a few seconds.
Clean up hot glue strings as you go.
I then decided my garland was a little short. So, for my next layer I just made longer pieces so they would hang lower. The second layer of garland I made about 12 inches each. It is okay if the strips are not exact, because trees are not exact. Just make your cuts at about the same length depending on how the berries lay. For this second layer I only did 4 strips of the garland. I then glued these strips roughly between the gaps of the first layer.
I then made a third layer of about 10.5 inch garland strips. This layer also had 4 strips in total. This finished off my second package of garland. For this layer I just glued them in place anywhere that looked a little spares. For this layer some of the garland strips were glued higher and some lower than the others. This layer was used to fill in any gaps or spaces.
Once all the garland berries were glued down, I started wrapping my dowel rods with the brown floral tape. Just go slow, and pull slightly on the tape as you go. This tape becomes activated/sticky when it is stretched a little. When wrapping just rotate the tree as you go and wrap around the garland sticking out. I moved the garland up with one hand to help hold it out of my way as I went. There was one spot I was a bit heavy on the glue, but when the tape was wrapped around it, it looked like a knot in the trunk, which I liked.
For the base I purchased a piece of wood from Hobby Lobby. My wood piece needed to be sanded down a little. At first I watered down a light brown acrylic paint to make a wood stain look and painted it onto my wood base. Once this was dry I decided it was to light of a brown for my liking. So, I repeated the process with a darker brown acrylic paint. You could also stain your wood, but for me it was just quicker and easier to paint it.
before any paint 
too light 
before I painted it this darker brown 
I was just going to glue my tree to my base, but my boyfriend insisted on drilling a hole in my base for the tree to sit in. This does make it a little more stable, and I did not have to worry about propping things up against the tree as it dried to hold it in place. However, if you do not want to drill a hole, then just apply some glue and prop things around it to hold it in place as it dries. I used gorilla glue for my piece, but you could probably use other glues as well. Now all that is left is to move the branches/garland to your liking.
For this tree I was going for a fall leaves, but my sister thought it looked like a Halloween tree. You could even paint some of the berries black if you wanted it to look more like Halloween. I thought about painting some of the berries yellow to add more fall colors to my tree. Some cute pumpkins could also be added around the bottom of the tree. So, I guess you could make this a Halloween or a fall tree. Either way I was excited about how well it turned out, and it was not too difficult to make. I would love to see your berry garland trees and which season you decided to go with.
