Spooky Halloween Branches Tutorial

Remember, I warned you I'd be posting some Halloween projects this month!

I've been seeing these spooky potted lighted tree/branches around. I saw some at Target for $40/each and thought eh, I could make that. Well friends, not only did I make them, I made them for less than 1/2 the price! I ended up spending $20 on two. Super easy and good outside Halloween decor (or "yard crap", as my husband calls it). Here's how i did it:

You'll need the following (which you can get in one place, unless you're like me and drive to a minimum of 3 different stores to find the best deal and save a whopping couple of dollars):

black branches
floral foam
lights (i used two 50-strand boxes per tree)
black zip ties
moss
2 urns (or 4 pots that you can glue together for an urny shape + black spray paint + glue)

Since urns are expensive and I didn't have any, I decided to make my own urn-looking pot. I bought 2 small pots and 2 medium pots, spray painted them black and hot glued the bottom of a medium to the bottom of a small. Viola, urny-shaped pot! Add the floral foam to the top and then you can prepare your branches.

Cut the branches in various sizes (I used a hand pruner to cut mine) and insert into the foam in a decoratively spooky manner.

Next you just run the lights up and down the branches using the zip ties to tighten them up. I started at the bottom of one branch (remember to leave some length on the end so you can plug it in!) and went up one branch, then about 1/4way down before loosely draping it to the top of the next branch. From there, run the lights down, then up on another branch, and so on.  Once the lights are on every branch, make sure the other end of the plug is at the bottom and then cover it and the foam with moss.

They look pretty cool at night. Perfect for entrances or as pathway markers!