"Fairy Tale" Trees

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 32, 7 February 1931, Page 19

"Fairy Tale" Trees

If you want an. interesting occupation for, the evenings,- why not fashioii little trees for table decoration?.■.. Wit painted twigs fop stems ; and branches; and pearls or coloured beads: for. frui,t and' foliage, you' can make adorable miniatures that seem to have conic straight out of a fairy-tale' garden, writes a ■correspondent; v r. Large Cream cartons will jnako excellent pots for these fairy trees. Clean a carton, and fill it with sand or lead shot so that it .will stand firmly. Make a small hole in the lid to take the stem of the tree; glue the edges and stick it back into the'carton. When the glue is quite dry give the whole pot a coat of jado green enamel and, just before the paint is dry, blow on a powdering of gold or silve'rdust. Choose5a sturdy twig with a bent and. twisted stem for the tree' trunk, enamel .'this vermillion, and blow gold or silver dust on to tho branches. While the paint is drying, make the clusters of "fruit" from glass beads about an eighth of an inch across. You probably have several discarded necklets which will yield suitable materials. String the beads, in groups of five or six, and form them into a cluster,; then twist the thread,and tie the bunch on to the tip of a branch. Each,tree,should have seven or eight fruit-bunches of varying

sizes. The threads that .tie them can bo hidden afterwards beneath splashes of paint. Pearl-bead clusters, "growing" on a silver-painted, tree in a midnight blue pot make a particularly lovely little decoration. Or you could have a jade green tree, with red, amthyst, and blue fruits, growing in a silver pot. Besides making attractive place-trimmings for the dining table, these little trees look well arranged on the mantelpiece, in -a recess-shelf, on a low table, or on the window-sill.