Palm trees look fantastic in any setting, from a beach party to a backyard barbecue or even a child's room. Unfortunately, palm trees don't flourish everywhere and are costly. If you'd like a fake palm tree for a party, special occasion, or decorative touch, keep reading to learn how to make artificial palm trees for a fraction of the price of a real palm tree.
How to Make Artificial Palm Trees
1. DIY Palm Tree Tutorial 1
Materials
- Brown grocery paper bags or brown newsprint
- Large cardboard tube
- Styrofoam or floral foam
- Wire hanger for Each frond
- A pot or a box
- Light and dark green tissue paper
- Double-sided tape
- Wire cutters
- White glue
- Scissors
- Pliers
Directions
- Get yourself a big cardboard tube. Cardboard tubes are available at carpet stores and printing shops. The trunk of your fake palm trees will be made out of this. Fill a box or pot with floral foam or Styrofoam and secure the tube's base. Alternatively, you can place the carpet rolls on microphone stands to help them stand.
- You'll need brown paper, which comes on a roll. A hardware store would be the best location to look for it. Wrap brown paper onto the cardboard tube. Crumple the paper ahead of time to provide texture to the tree's "trunk" and use double-sided tape to keep it in place.
- Make the fronds of a palm tree. Using pliers, bend a wire hanger until it is straight. With the wire cutters, remove the hook. The length of the straight wire should be roughly 40 inches.
- Another option is to gather many vintage umbrellas, even if they are shattered. Post the need on Facebook, and someone might have some they'd be ready to offer. These umbrellas will be hung from the top of the tree to make the fake palm-like branches.
- You can create two different appearances for palm trees based on the materials on hand. If you have plastic palm-like branches on hand, you'll want to cut these apart with wire clippers, so you have distinct strands.
- Tape these to each of the umbrella arms using basic scotch tape. Work your way up from the bottom. Use three to four separately cut branches for each palm branch. This look appears to be more natural.
- You can use straws for the paper palm leaves with green butcher paper. Cut out a palm leaf shape to the proper size and tape it on the umbrella's arms. Then tape it on the straws to act as veins and support to keep the leaves from falling limp.
- If you have tissue paper sheets instead, place two sheets on top of each other. Place a bead of white glue in the center of the paper, then the wire on top of it. Leave about 4 inches of wire protruding to make a stem.
- On top of the wire, apply more adhesive, and then two more pieces of tissue paper. You may have to glue the sheets together as well. As you construct more fronds, set them aside to dry.
- Fold the fronds in half along the wire to make a rectangular "flag" after drying. Cut the rectangle's ends diagonally to make a trapezoid form, with the bottom shorter than the top.
- Cut the tissue paper layers up to the wire to make feathery frond strips. After that, trim the frond to form it. Bend the wire to make it more natural-looking.
- Insert the wire "stems" into the floral foam you've placed on the top of the cardboard pole. If making tissue paper leaves is too difficult or time-consuming, use green construction paper leaves instead. To produce "coconuts" for your tree, wrap little balls in brown paper. Viola, you have a beautiful palm tree.
2. DIY Palm Tree Tutorial 2
Materials
- About 100 brown paper lunch sacks
- Green tissue paper
- Brown spray paint
- 16 gauge floral wire
- Pool noodles
- duct tape
- hot glue
Directions:
- Use the scissors to cut the pool noodle in two. Then tape half of a noodle to another whole noodle with duct tape.
- Cut off the bottoms of the paper bags. Scrunch the paper bags together and slide them onto the pool noodle. Tape the bottom and top of the bag together.
- Paint the palm trunks brown using spray paint.
- Take one sheet of tissue paper and lay it flat to construct the palm fronds. Glue a line through the middle of the page. Place the floral wire piece on the glue line.
- Place another layer of tissue paper on top of the wire and apply another line of adhesive.
- Cut the edge in a circle form after folding the tissue paper in half lengthwise.
- Cut one-inch pieces almost to the center wire.
- Push the wire into the pool noodle to attach the palm fronds to the trunk.
- You now have your own artificial palm tree ornament. Because the palm won't stand on its own, you'll have to suspend it with a fishing line from the ceiling!