West Elm Tree Hurricane {The Look for Less}

Today I am going to show you how to create a West Elm inspired Tree Hurricane that is absolutely perfect for Fall/Winter décor. And it’s cheap! Woo! *throws glitter*

Here’s my inspiration:

via West Elm, $24-$29 each, plus candle.

Materials Needed:

-Contact paper (8.5x11 piece)

-1 Glass vase (Preferably 8” tall)

-1 Small pillar candle (optional)

-Silhouette SD or Scissors/X-ACTO Knife*

So, I got to work looking in the Silhouette SD online store & Google images to find some trees I liked. I found 2 in their online store, plus one on Google images. If you find an image on Google images and want to use it (within legal rights/copyright, etc.) you can import it to your library, then add it to your workspace (as seen below).

Then you select trace, uncheck the “High Pass Filter” box…

Check the “Low Pass Filter” box so that it fills up the image yellow, as seen below.

Then click on “Trace Outer Edge” and bam, you’re done. Resize as big/small as you want.

Ok, so I decided I wanted my tree hurricane to only have skinny trees like the ones in the upper left hand corner. I then cut a sheet of contact paper to 8.5x11 inches and loaded it into my Silhouette SD. I use the cut settings for Silhouette Vinyl, and had my Silhouette cut me my pretty trees. The contact paper sometimes has trouble sticking onto the mat and STAYING in place—to combat this I tape down the corners with a bit of Scotch tape so it lays flat. Works like a charm!

While my Silhouette is cutting, I grab my $1 store vase, pop the old candle out, and wipe it down with some Windex.

Once my trees are cut, I peel them out of the contact paper:

And then I peel off the back to reveal the adhesive, and I placed it onto my $1 store vase. Once they’re all stuck on there, I grabbed a white sheet of printer paper and rolled it around the vase. Then I grabbed a gift card and ran it up and down the trees to get any air bubbles out and rolled around the vase a bit (GENTLY!) on my counter. I used the paper to avoid tons of fingerprints and to hopefully avoid tearing my trees using the gift card.

And you’re done!

*Now, I know some of you might be thinking, “What if I don’t have a Silhouette SD, Monica?” I feel ya! I would say you could probably achieve the same effect using scissors and cutting out trees/limbs or an X-ACTO knife, if you’re good with that sorta thing. Remember, you want your trees to be kinda wispy and imperfect, so anything goes! Just have at it, or download some images and trace/cut. You don’t need a craft cutter to do this, but I do LOVE my Silhouette SD. LOVE!

Also, I used contact paper instead of etching the glass because it’s quicker, easier and non-permanent. Just peel off the trees at the end of fall/winter and you have a blank vase again. Also, you can’t beat the frosted glass look that contact paper gives. Such a versatile, cheap product.

Pop in a small pillar candle (also from the $1 store) and you have yourself a gorgeous hurricane/candle holder.

I love the way this looks on our new breakfast nook table. Easy, simple and VERY cheap. If you’re wondering how to make that fabulous silver pumpkin in the photos, you can read all about it over here.

West Elm Price: $24 + $4 for the candle= $30

Monica’s Look for Less: $1 (I had the contact paper & candle on hand, but if not a HUGE roll is about $4 at Walmart).

Savings= About $29

I’ll be back tomorrow with a breakfast nook mini-reveal and a tasty recipe for Nutella hot chocolate. You won’t want to miss it.