(I’ve had so many people ask how I built the gossamer tree. I’ve added some detailed instructions at the very end of this post if you’re interested…)
We survived!
Kids’ Day 2012 is behind us and now I’m busy trying to catch up on all the housework I’ve been neglecting for weeks, even while I’m getting everything ready for us to start school. But let me pause in the midst of my cleaning and laundry and homeschool book-organizing to let you in on a little bit of the Kids’ Day fun…
The jungle safari theme was a huge success! While coming up with skits and songs and stories to fit the theme was pretty easy, it was one of the more challenging themes we’ve done as far as the decorating was concerned. Bringing the outdoors in in a way that was beautiful and dramatic, but also budget-friendly, wasn’t easy. In the end, however, I was thrilled with the results!
I love doing the unexpected in the entryway to the church and I was especially pleased with what we put together this year! I started with a backdrop of black flat paper in the hopes it would make the greens of my jungle really pop. And it worked well!
I really, really liked my tree! I desperately wanted a tree the kids would have to walk under as they came into the church, but sometimes you can picture something in your mind and have a plan for making it happen, yet no matter how you try, you just can’t seem to execute it. Fortunately this tree turned out almost exactly the way I wanted it! And just in case you’re curious…it’s built of pool noodles and lots of brown packing paper and lunch bags.
The canopy was amazing. I strung several lengths of fishing line the width of the foyer and draped about 40 yards of green gossamer and netting between them so it dangled below the tops of the branches. Almost the entire ceiling was covered, so it made for a pretty dramatic effect. There were lots of ooos and ahhhs as the kids, (and their parents,) entered.
I added other trees as well.
These were made of PVC pipe, green plastic tablecloths, and plastic-coated wire.
My husband always designs our stage props and I thought he did a great job. That’s a puppet window to the right and a screen for reverse projection to the left. The screen added a new and fun element to Kids’ Day this year.
Love Alika’s trees!
Oh, and let me note that this is in our old sanctuary. We haven’t moved to the new one just yet, though now we’re just waiting on the church pews, so it shouldn’t be much longer. Anyway, the old baptistry showing in the background reeeally bothered my husband, but there was no good way to cover it. I tried to tell him most people were too overwhelmed by the magnificence of his props to even notice the blue baptistry in the background, but I’m not sure my bit of flattery convinced him…
My good friend, Jackie, took care of the fellowship hall for me, including the food and the decorating. Loved it…
Check out these centerpieces.
The walls were lined with animals. I thought the 3D effect was a nice touch!
Jackie’s food presentation is always amazing. She has so much imagination!
And how about this exit? Is that cool or what?
There were also pinatas…
And snow cones…
And bounce houses, (or “jumpy-jumpies”, as they’re referred to in our family thanks to Peanut.) No pictures of those, I’m afraid. And no pictures of the games or the stories or the puppets or a lot of the other things that make Kids’ Day so fun. I make a rotten photographer because I forget to take pictures!
I also ran into this jungle explorer who had captured a wild cheetah and a Tigger … er… umm… tiger. And, no, that’s not some sort of mane or fuzzy jaw on Peanut there. That’s the bandage covering the five stitches he received during a mid-decorating run to the emergency room on Thursday. Never a dull moment where Kids’ Day is involved!
It was an extraordinary day and my thanks go out to everyone who helped decorate or cut or paste or cook or clean or do puppets or babysit or…well, you get the idea! It takes a lot of people working together to make Kids’ Day possible, and I’m so thankful for all those who pitched in! Thanks, too, to all the parents who brought their children!
It was indeed a WILD and wonderful day!
Instructions for the gossamer tree:
I really wish I had photographed each step of my tree-making because I was so pleased with the final results, but in the beginning I really wasn’t sure if it would work! I had something in mind, but not every crazy idea of mine works out the way it’s supposed to! 🙂 I was VERY happy with this one, however.
I give somewhat of an explanation in the blog post, of course, but I thought I’d share a few more details. The pool noodle trunk worked really well, although it’s best if you can anchor your tree at top and bottom because the fact it’s so light makes it pretty unstable.
To make my trunk I just duct taped 8 or 10 long pool noodles together to a height of about 3 or 4 feet and covered it with crumpled brown paper bags. (You could use craft paper, too.) When you stand it up you can pull the pool noodles apart and branch them out like tree branches. I would combine two or three and tape those together, covering each branch then with more brown bags. And I extended the length of the branches, too, by duct taping more noodles to my branches so they reached the ceiling. (Which, granted, might be hard to do if you have very high ceilings!) I tried to cut the noodles and taper them as they reached the ceiling, just like real branches taper off and get thinner as they go up. Your work can be as ugly as you need it be because you’re covering it all with brown bags anyway!
I actually taped the branches to the ceiling or to a wall, just for extra support, and then suspended about 40-50 yards of gossamer over the tree branches rather than hanging it from the ceiling. I was building my tree in a fairly small space, so I was able to extend lengths of fishing line from one wall to the other with each line about 18 inches apart, then I carefully laid the gossamer over the line and spread and fluffed it to get the effect I wanted. You couldn’t tell it from underneath, but the gossamer wasn’t attached to the tree at all. We filled the entire ceiling space with the green so it looked like a big tree and the branches more or less disappeared above you into the “leaves”. The effect was very dramatic and I LOVED it!
Once the tree was in place we added brown paper to fill in bare spots on the trunk and branches and then covered the base with greenery. Our tree and the gossamer covered the ceiling of an 8 x 10 entryway, which gave it the full effect I was looking for.
I hope that helps you some! Feel free to ask me more specific questions if you have them and I’ll do my best to explain further. It was a time-consuming project and included some trial and error, but overall it actually went up easier than I expected and it added so much to our jungle theme. I hope you can meet with the same kind of success!
Oh My! My head hurts just thinking of all the work that went into that!!!! I could definitely see myself getting into a project like that though and loving it. Looks absolutely Wonderful! Very impressed with all the decor! You all did a GREAT job! I should bring all my little munchkins one year!
You'll have to join us next year! It's always a lot of fun!
You guys are soooo talented, wow what a great job.
Shows how much you love and care for the children in the church, by all the hard work and love you put into Kids Day. My girls would loved to of seen that.
Blessings
I've been asked to include directions on making my tree so…Read this from my response to another reader…
"I really wish I had photographed each step of my tree-making because I was so pleased with the final results, but in the beginning I really wasn't sure if it would work! I had something in mind, but not every crazy idea of mine works out the way it's supposed to! 🙂 I was VERY happy with this one, however.
I give somewhat of an explanation in my blogpost "Wild Times in God's Kingdom" under the tab FUN DAYS. The pool noodle idea worked really well, although its best if you can anchor your tree at top and bottom because the fact it's so light makes it pretty unstable.
To make my trunk I just duct taped 8 or 10 long pool noodles together to a height of about 3 or 4 feet and covered it with crumpled brown paper bags. (You could use craft paper, too.) When you stand it up you can pull the pool noodles apart and branch them out like tree branches. I would combine two or three and tape those together, covering each branch then with more brown bags. And I extended the length of the branches, too, by duct taping more noodles to my branches so they reached the ceiling. (Which, granted, might be hard to do if you have very high ceilings!) I tried to cut the noodles and taper them as they reached the ceiling, just like real branches taper off and get thinner as they go up. Your work can be as ugly as you need it be because you're covering it all with brown bags anyway!
I actually taped the branches to the ceiling or to a wall, just for extra support, and then suspended the gossamer over the tree branches rather than hanging it from the ceiling. I was building my tree in a fairly small space, so I was able to extend lengths of fishing line from one wall to the other with each line about 18 inches apart, then I carefully laid the gossamer over the line and spread and fluffed it to get the effect I wanted. You couldn't tell it from underneath, but the gossamer wasn't attached to the tree at all. We filled the entire ceiling space with the green so it looked like a big tree and the branches more or less disappeared above you into the "leaves". The effect was very dramatic and I LOVED it!
Once the tree was in place we added brown paper to fill in bare spots on the trunk and branches and then covered the base with greenery. I'm not positive, but I believe we actually used two 30-foot rolls of gossamer to cover the ceiling of an 8 x 10 entryway, which gave it the full effect I was looking for.
I hope that helps you some! Feel free to ask me more specific questions if you have them and I'll do my best to explain further. It was a time-consuming project and included some trial and error, but overall it actually went up easier than I expected and it added so much to our jungle theme. I hope you can meet with the same kind of success!"
Hello and greetings to you. I am decorating a Jungle themed baby shower for my daughter June 10th 2017. I came across your post on Pinterest. I absolutely ….absolutely love this and want to make it for the hall. I have several questions for you. I will leave my email at he end.
1. How long did it take to make?
2. Where did you order the gossamer and was it real expensive?
3. How did you attach the bags to the trunk?
4where did y0u order the wall cutouts of the animals?
5. can you come to Michigan and duplicate this its gorgeous? Just kidding……lol!
you are such my inspiration for doing this project I cant wait to see the look on my daughter’s face when she see this at the shower.
thanks so much
crunch time
You made me laugh, Shavonne! 🙂 Glad you liked my tree. While I’ve been satisfied with a lot of the crazy things I’ve made for different kids’ events, I was never happier than with my tree. To answer your questions…
#1 — I don’t remember exactly how long I spent at it, but I had my tree made within a few hours’ time, and that was with some trial and error because, while I had a game plan in mind, I wasn’t completely sure it would work! I would allow at least 2-4 hours to get it done, provided you have all the materials you need at the start and depending on the size of the space you’re filling.
#2 — I purchased my gossamer from our local Walmart. As I understand it, not all Walmarts sell fabrics anymore, so I don’t know if you can find it there. If I remember correctly, we ended up buying all the green gossamer our Walmart had and so we bought more at Hobby Lobby. It was a different green, which I was upset about at first, but by the time I blended the two colors, I loved the effect! I’m pretty sure places like Michael’s and Joann’s carry gossamer as well.
#3 — Most of the bags I just busted through the bottom and crumpled into rings and then slipped over the pool noodles. Other places I just used clear tape to hold everything together. Use something a little stronger like clear packing tape and you shouldn’t have any problem with it holding together. The crumpled paper is easy to bunch up so you can hide the tape. It doesn’t have to be perfect to look really good.
#4 — We had a local party supply store I bought most of our wall decorations from, but I always like to check out Shindigz.com for decor ideas, and of course Amazon, too.
#5 — Hey, I’d love to come be your “tree-builder”, but since that probably wouldn’t be the wisest thing, let me just encourage you by saying I know you can do it! 😉 It was really a fun project for me and it was very satisfying to see the finished product. Hope you’re happy with your tree in the end!
You didn’t include an email address, so I hope you’re seeing this! If you have any more questions, just contact me through my contact page. 🙂
Hello this is Shavonne No one in Michigan seem to know what gossamer is. I have 2 weeks to find this material. Ugh
shavonne35@att.net
I love your decor – the tree is amazing! Thanks for sharing all of your hard work. I am going to try to make the tree for this year's VBS Jungle Safari.
Thank you, Chris! I LOVED this theme. I hope you meet with success in your VBS!
Absolutely brilliant! Thanks for sharing!!!
Thank you for reading!
How many pool noodles did you use in total?
Thank you
A lot of that depends on how thick you want your tree, but I would say I used at least 12 – 15: 10 or so for my trunk, plus extras to extend up toward the ceiling. I actually bought probably 20 pool noodles at a clearance sale. (I remember a guy laughing at me trying to get them in my minivan!) But I kept the receipt and was able to return what I didn't use.
Can you tell me specifically how you attached the fabric? Did you clip it like a clothesline or drape it through the fishing line? I've tried to replicate it several times, but can't get the same look. How did you get it bunched up like that? I have a jungle party in two days. Help please! Thank you!
Read the long comment I posted just above and see if that helps any. I draped the gossamer over fishing line and then just pulled and fluffed it the best I could to get the effect I wanted. But that comment says I used 2-30 foot rolls when I realized later I actually used 2-20 YARD rolls. Big difference, so I apologize for that. But I used two different colors, too, which I think made it look even thicker.
I hope your party comes together!!
Thank you Tanya! We just gave it a quick test run and it's going to look great! Can't wait for my residents (retirement community) to see it Wednesday evening!
Thanks again!
Hope you had a great event! 🙂
You said you used 2-20 yard rolls. Do you know how wide the rolls were? I'm finding the 19 inch rolls most of the Gossamer Fabric – but that doesn't seem very wide to me. Do you think tulle would work as well?
I believe I used 60-inch gossamer. Yes, the 19-inch would likely be way too narrow to give you the kind of fullness you need. But, yes, tulle might work well, too. It would be more transparent, but I think you could still get the effect you're wanting. We went with the gossamer because we found plenty of it in the right colors. We bought it at Hobby Lobby, by the way, though I have to confess I haven't looked to see if they still carry it.
If you try the tulle, be sure to let me know how it worked for you!
Dear Tanya, what a blessing you are!!! Thank you for sharing your creativity! The decorations you made for Kid's Day had to have made Our Lord smile! Thank you so very much for sharing!
Thanks. (Blush.) I hope the Lord was smiling. I know a lot of kids were! I had a lot of fun with it 🙂
Hello, I love your tree. I'm wondering how you attached the crumpled up paper/bags on there
Thank you,
Cindy
Hi, Cindy! I just punched out the bottoms of the bags, crumpled them into a little ring or O, and slid them down over my pool noodles. I had to use a little tape to help fill small gaps, but if you use a ton of bags like I did, you won't even have much problem with that. Hope that answers your question!
Hi! Thanks for such a wonderful project, and all the great tips and explanations! Your tree is one of the best I caught on Pinterest! I was wonderng how you kept it standing up (did u use a base of sorts?) and whether you had trouble with it tumbling….? I’m thinking of it for an outdoor event, so just wondering. Thanks!!
Building this tree indoors gave me the advantage of securing it both on the top and bottom with thick masking tape and little more. And my green gossamer wasn’t actually attached to the trunk and branches of the tree, but suspended over them on fishing line, so my “leaves” didn’t add any weight to the flimsy pool noodles. Creating the same effect outdoors may be a challenge, unless maybe you’re working under a pergola or a covered patio. In that case I think the look could be recreated. If you use enough pool noodles, you can build a thick enough trunk to be fairly sturdy and then attach it to the ground with stakes or to pavement with duct tape. But it is important to have a place to attach the branches above as well to get the right effect.
I hope you can make this idea workable! And I wish you the best of success with your event.
I plan on making this for my high schools homecoming in October. I was just confused on how the fish line was used ? Did u connect two trees or did u use it to help stabilize? Is it necessary?
Hi, Morgan! Being constructed out of pool noodles, the tree trunk itself isn’t strong enough to support any greenery being attached to it directly. I built my tree in a smaller space, so I was able to string the fishing line above my tree and then suspend the gossamer over my tree trunk. So the trunk and its “leaves” weren’t actually connected to one another, though you couldn’t tell it from below. Granted, this would be harder to do in a larger room.
I’m already planning for our Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet (Baloo and Gold Banquet) in February with a Jungle Book Theme. Yes, I said February! I’ve actually been starting to collect materials since shortly after our last Blue and Gold, which allows me to take advantage of sales and picking things up when they are in season, like pool noodles aren’t available in January and February while they can sometimes be found on sale at the end of summer! lol I will be decorating a room about half the size of a gym with the high ceiling to go with it. I’m trying to picture your base of pool noodles with not much luck, so I’m hoping you can clarify for me?? It sounds like you took five or more pool noodles in a bundle and probably taped them together, but I can’t picture what you did to make them tall enough to imitate a tree. Did you use fewer pool noodles in another bundle the higher you went, to make the “tree” itself smaller the higher it went, then divided up the noodles to branch out into the branches?? If you did, what did you do to connect the two bunches of pool noodles?? If you didn’t, do you have a suggestion on what I could do, to make my trees tall to make use of the high ceiling and have a better jungle feel?? Do you have a suggestion on how many “trees” I should plan to make?? I don’t even have an idea of how many I should even begin to plan to make!
I was able to make some really great seaweed out of green plastic table clothes for this year’s banquet which was Cubs Under the Sea themed and plan to reuse them with brown packing paper and hang it to make vines next year for the Jungle theme. I’ll just have to hang them differently to get a different vine look. I am thinking if I can come up with a nice waterfall and maybe a “pool” of water, with “rocks” to go with it will make a nice finishing touch and I may even be able to reuse some of our other under the sea decorations too. I made some paper mache “rocks” last year for a campfire themed award ceremony. It was kind of fun to watch my husband throw a “heavy’ rock for one of my cubs to catch and see the look on his face! Wish I had taken a photo or two of that. I’m already planning to make quite a few more rocks, to make sure I have what I need even if I end up not using them!
Thanks in advance for your help and any suggestions. My email address is Familytreeclimber@yahoo.com, please send an answer to me in case I can’t find your blog again??
Edwina
This looks amazing! I would love to make this tree for our churches Hallelujah Fest with a Day of Creation theme. With the pool noodles, is it free standing? If not, how did you get it to stay upright?