Christmas Ornaments from Tree Branches

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In early November I lost an old friend. This water maple tree which is older than me has given me shade for the last 37 years. It had seen better days. Every time a storm rolled through, I expected it to fall on the house. Part of it did fall on the patio cover causing me to get it replaced. Within a few weeks of having the new patio cover, another piece fell on it, without causing an damage, but I knew it was time to say goodbye.

I watched from across the street as the workmen took it down. Each limb they brought down, looked big enough to be it’s own tree.

The workers did a good job. It took 2 days to get it down. The second day was much colder and I watched from the house.

Goodbye old friend! I’m going to miss you.

I know you’re wondering how much of the wood I kept. I would have loved to keep a lot more than I did, but logs are very heavy and I had no place to keep them or means to move them. I asked the gentlemen to cut me a couple of larger stumps to use as side tables.

In addition to this tree, there were plans for three more trees in the back of the house, but that never happened.

These are a couple of the smaller limbs I used for these ornaments.

I cut them on my compound miter saw.

  The wood was green…which I think added to how smooth they sliced. I didn’t have to sand these discs at all.

Because the wood wasn’t aged/cured, I decided to dry the pieces in my oven. I put them in a warm oven (200°) for one hour. The key was to get them off the cookie sheets as soon as they were a little cool so they didn’t “sweat” and become damp again.

I put the discs in a gift bag and took them to Jamie when we did the show Making Merry in Berry Hill.

Jamie painted the ornaments with DIY chalk paint and then wrote on them with a gold paint pen. Aren’t they beautiful? This is such a special ornament to be made out of a tree that Jamie grew up with.

This is one I made with the DIY chalk paint.

And another one. You can buy these, and I know a lot of people have made them, but knowing these came from MY tree makes them all that more special.

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