My Crafty Adventure: Christmas Fruit Tree

Hooray!! It's happened...I have been bitten by the crafty bug all thanks to Pinterest! I'm fairly new to this cool bulletin board like site. -- Thanks to my sister in law for her pressuring me to join and lose hours of my life thumbing through other peoples creative talents.

Ah, but if it wasn't for my time well spent on Pinterest then I wouldn't have made this healthy treat to take to school for my oldest gal's teacher. The original picture and post can be found here.

Step by step:

This took about 30-40 minutes for me to make. The most time consuming part was cutting up the fresh pineapple and cantaloupe. I would advise you to use citrus, or more acidic fruits to prevent browning from occurring. Apples could be used if first soaked in a little lemon or orange juice- just no bananas. I used about $15.00 worth of fruit from the grocery- all fresh. Grapes, pineapple, kiwi, mango, strawberries and clementines. Use cookie cutters or melon scoops to help form the shape of the ornaments. I used a small 1 1/2 inch round biscuit cutter for most of the fruit and a star for the top.

I started with a Styrofoam tree that I found for $3.00 at a local craft store. Some stores have green which I would have preferred but white was what the only one I could find.

Then you will need a box of round toothpicks to use to hold the fruit in place. TIP: Insert the toothpicks first row at a time and then place the fruit on the stick when ready. This prevents the sticks from pushing through the fruit. And- helps decrease the amount of sticks you will have puncturing your delicate fingers.

Next work your way up from the bottom scattering the fruit from row to row. Don't worry about the gaps- you can go back in and fill with grapes at the end. You'll even see if you look closely that I had some white spaces. I found that this is almost impossible to prevent. (In other words--- DON'T stress over this! Lesson learned.)

This would also be a wonderful party favor or centerpiece! My oldest is already asking for a fun shape for her birthday party in March! Hmm... might have to shop around for a creative Styrofoam shape.

Happy Holidays to you all!