Icy Twig Spray DIY Tutorial: How to make your own "frozen branches".

Icy twig sprays are a perfect festive decoration for the holidays and beautiful for winter weddings as table centrepieces. You can pay quite a bit for them in the stores, but I like to keep things simple and inexpensive, so I thought I would try my hand at creating my own.

I've seen various pictures of people who have used glitter, but I must admit I'm not a huge fan of glitter. I think it's pretty, but I can't stand how it gets everywhere and I'm left for days with it stuck to my eyelids!

So I went to my dollar store and I looked for something to resemble ice. I saw fake snow in a bag and thought that could work, I saw little tiny white perils, but then I spotted a bag of vase filler and thought that could be interesting! I also painted my branches (that I picked in my yard) white, to make them stand out even more! I think it turned out pretty awesome.

Follow below for my quick tutorial on how I made DIY Icy Twig Spray.

Cost - $1

Time - 30 minutes

Level - Easy

Icy Twig Spray

Supplies you will need:

• branches

• glue (use tacky glue, I tried white Elmer's glue but some of the filler beads kept falling off)

• vase filler

• paintbrush

• white paint

Items you need to create Icy Twigs

Icy Twig Spray Tutorial Instructions:

1. Collect your branches. I love it when I can create crafts with free and natural supplies. Nothing says wintertime more than frost covered branches. You can pick branches from any tree or bush you would like. Mine are lilac branches from my overgrown lilac trees in my backyard.

Lilac branches

2. Paint the branches white. You could choose to leave your branches in their natural state, unpainted and I think they would look beautiful with the "frozen" bits on them. Or you could paint them in any colour of your choice. For me, since the background of my wood unit is a dark grey, I decided that painting my twigs white would allow them to pop against the dark background and help brighten the display. Use any paint you have on hand. I just used my chalk paint (that I love) and painted it quickly over. I didn't need to cover every bare twig space. I wanted some of the natural wood to show in places. If you want your branches to be completely solid, then just be sure to apply an even coat all over. I just quickly dabbed away at the branches ( 3 in total) and was done in 5 minutes. Allow the paint to dry before moving onto the next part.

Comparison of the natural Lilac Twig with the Painted Lilac Twig. The white makes the branch stand out against the dark background.

3. Apply glue to the dried painted branches. I just used white glue but I think tacky glue (if I had any) would have been better. It adheres to items more quickly and stronger. With that said, the white glue worked fine for me. Hopefully, it will last for the long term, time shall tell. (UPDATE: So the white Elmer's glue wasn't good enough for me. The filler beads would fall off if I touched the branches. So I purchased some tacky glue and it was much better and the beads adhered to it far better). To apply the glue, I just used a small paintbrush and rubbed it over the branches. Again, it's fine not to get every spot covered in glue. This only took a few minutes to apply the glue to each branch. Note: I created one branch at a time. So I applied glue to one branch and then applied the filler beads. Once completed, I re-did the steps with my next branch and so on.

Applying glue to painted branches

4. Sprinkle vase filler beads over the wet glue. Now for the messiest part of this craft. I poured the filler beads into a large tray to try and contain them. It worked for the most part, but I must admit as I was sprinkling the beads over the twigs, some did bounce off and onto the floor (there was some sweeping up afterwards) but all completely worth it. To apply the beads, I just held the branch low over the tray and scooped up the beads in my hand and sprinkled them over the twig randomly. Use more or less to reach your desired "icy" look.

Vase filler beads poured into a tray

Sprinkle beads over branches

See how the white branches with icy look "pops" against the grey background

Finished Project

Add some lights to add to the glitter!

Cost.

As I mentioned earlier, you can find icy twig sprays in the stores but you can shell out big bucks sometimes. This is such an inexpensive craft that is fun and simple to create and results in really pretty winter decor. I had all the supplies on hand, except for the vase filler beads (which I purchased for 2 dollars for a bag and I still have over half a bag left). So this craft cost me only $1 and it was really quick to design.

The other great thing about this craft is you can modify it in many ways. Hang minature ornaments on the branches, paint it in different colours, add twinkling lights (as I did), glue little acorns onto the branches.

Keep making memories by hand and have some fun along the way.