Using Fillers in the Tree

When I use the term fillers, I mean just putting in a little something to give the tree pizzazz! It's not the main decoration, or even the flowers or ribbon. The pizzazz, as I call it, is the little sparkle, or little something all over the tree that covers up some of the green undecorated spaces in the tree. To much makes it look over done. To little doesn't give it that extra pizzazz. It's like when you decorate a cake. It's done, but suddenly you add sprinkles. It gives it a fresh new distinctive look. What's nice about using fillers, is that every year you can give your tree a new look while still using many of the same ornaments. Just change the filler. Usually, it's the least expensive item on the tree.

Some of the fillers I have used are: eucalyptus branches, angel's hair, any kind of sparly dried flowers (tiny flowers, large branch or pick), sprinkle snow, dried fern leaves, and even tinsel.

Since pictures are worth a thousand words, here are a few showing how I used fillers. I am also giving you tree descriptions in case you like the ideas. 

In this first tree I used gold Angel's hair as a filler. There are so many other colors on the tree already to anything but a solid neutral color would be disastrous. Gold is a neutral Christmas color. This Angel's hair brings sparkle and shimmer to the tree without detracting from the other items. This tree has a large assortment of Clothtique paper mache Angels. There are an assortment of gold ornaments. The ribbon was used to create a garland. It's a garland of loops. There are at least four colors of sheer shimmering ribbon used.

 

This tree has a filler of eucalyptus leaves. These are real and give off a wonderful ordor as you near the tree. This tree was named Golden Harvest. There are all kinds of ornaments that have something to do with the harevesting time of year. There are a variety of fruits, horn of plenty and many other assorted ornaments. There are a  lot of cherub heads and instruments mixed in with this theme. The tree topper is a simple Angel. The eucalyptus give it a feel of realness. Some of the fruit looks so real, you can just about taste them.

 

This was a tree, from one of the very first years of my decorating experience. It is a simple tree, and the focus is actually not on the tree but the display of Department 56 houses under the tree and on the wall.  It does demonstrate what I'm writing about very nicely. The poinsettias and birds on the trees were for sale. The sparkle branches are what caught everyone's attention. It offers a natural look with some added pizzazz. I also threw some sparkle sprinkle snow on and under the tree to add to the affect. Simple, woodsy and elegant.

With this tree, I added two fillers. One was a real dried fern leaf, and the other was silver Angel's hair to give it a shimmery look. If you pull the Angel's hair and make it as thin as you can it's very hard to actually see the Angel's hair. It just shimmers like the mornings first mist. In this tree it was necessary to use fillers that blended in because the colors in the ornaments and Santa figurines are pink and peach. It makes a beautiful combination. 

This tree was created with a tree just for him in mind. Everything on this tree is from the woods. It's what you might see if you go hunting or on a nature walk. There are mushroom picks, pine cones and an assortment of birds flutter through out the tree. There are an assortment of berry picks and pheasant feathers in the tree. Blue paper ribbon was used so there wouldn't be any sparkle to the tree. Two different colors of blue give it depth. The filler in this tree is wild grasses. It looks like very tall grass has been chopped down and placed in the tree. This gives it a wild look and feeling. I didn't want any touch of the feminine in this tree at all. Although it was to appeal to men, many women appreciated this tree because of it's natural appeal. It's rather like bringing the outside indoors.