Oh, Christmas Tree

Have you been out shopping lately? It is a madhouse in any store where you might conceivably purchase a gift for someone. Far better to stay home and play with minis, maybe make some mini gifts!

Miniature Christmas scene with brush trees.

This year I’ve been noticing a proliferation of tiny paper houses designed for miniature holiday displays. They look really neat on miniature mantels or under a miniature tree. There have also been

Brush trees atop a 1/12 scale toy piano made by Tracey Meeker.

discussions about where to get, or how to make tiny trees with which to landscape those displays. Sometimes you can find  small bottle brush type trees in the craft stores, and I know I saw a post somewhere about how to make your own. And, someone once wrote about bleaching the green store bought ones so you could have white trees or other colors. Yipes!

On a recent visit to a friend and fellow miniaturist’s house, I noticed some tiny perfectly shaped little trees in her displays and asked her where she had gotten them.

DenTek brushes ready to be put to alternate uses!

Well, she laughed as told me-and now you can be in on the joke, too! They began life as dental brush tools for cleaning  your teeth. Tiny, perfect, little, conical brushes on a plastic handle. You can paint them any color you wish, add glitter if so desired, then clip them off the handle and plant them in a small scrap of wood. The hardest part is to plant them squarely into the base so that they stand correctly. The brushes come in various sizes from about 3/8 to 1/2 an inch tall and can be found in most drugstores. Make sure you get the conical shaped style as some are just straight up and down and not that typical tree shape.