Dollar Tree Christmas Tree Makeover

I feel like every time I turn around, I am either at Hobby Lobby or Target buying stuff we "need" for Christmas. While I know this isn't true, we don't NEED anything -- it sure is fun to make your house look all festive for the holidays, right? But UGH it's so expensive, and let's be real, Dollar Tree decor isn't really known for its glamor or durability. But a can of spray paint and some ribbon can do wonders for some of that stuff! 

I had pretty much hit my Christmas spending budget, like in October, but I really wanted to revamp our basement Christmas tree. We spend a lot of time down there in the winter months, and so that tree gets seen quite a bit. I had made some really cute Rae Dunn inspired ornaments several years ago (back when I was a Cricut rookie - it was one of my very first things I ever made with my Cricut!) -- and they're cute and all,  but it was lacking. And I will be honest, I spend zero time setting this up this year at first. I just wanted it out and up. So it looked pretty bad.

Knowing I couldn't really spend any more money on Christmas stuff, I started going through some old ribbon and mesh that I had left over from wreaths I made and got an idea. Ding! I could really fill out this tree with mesh and ribbon and then hit up Dollar Tree to fill in the gaps. So that's what I did. I set out to do a Dollar Tree Christmas Tree Challenge and I think I did pretty good! 

Here is the tree before:

I found some pretty good stuff at Dollar Tree, but I gotta tell ya - December 2nd is a little too late to be hitting up ANY store for Christmas decor. I was shocked at how slim the pickins were pretty much everywhere after December 1st. People are Christmas crazy! (Guilty.) 

Here is my haul from DT. I found some mesh ribbon, some pretty terrible-looking gold plastic bells, a Merry Christmas glitter sign, and some red glitter bows. 

I spray painted the bells an antique white that we just happened to have, added some buffalo check ribbon, and hot-glued on some greenery and pine cones and they turned out nice! 

I used as much mesh ribbon, burlap ribbon, and buffalo check ribbon as I could and then I just filled in the rest of the spots with ornaments we already had and the bells I revamped. That's it! I really love the way it turned out, and for less than $10, I can't really complain at all. 

Just remember when you're out at Dollar Tree -- some of that stuff is just really bad -- but think about what it would look like with a new coat of spray paint. Look at the "bones" of stuff and use your imagination and the sky's the limit!

Have you tried something similar? Head over to my Facebook Group and share!