Last time I mentioned that there may be more Christmas posts from last Christmas. I was right.
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Sometime last year I kept seeing adverts for a TreeMendous online.
This cute little tree machine spun the ornaments around so that you (your kids) could decorate the baubles with pretty patterns.
I needed it.
Each advert lead to a different site – none of which exist now that I’m writing this a year later. The tree itself was a decent price. Ranging from £6 to £10. But the shipping was stupid. So I went looking elsewhere.
I ended up getting a Magic Tree from AliExpress, for £8.
The TreeMendous pun was missing, but I wasn’t paying £30 shipping for that.
It’s not the most impressive-looking piece of equipment, but I wasn’t really expecting it to be. It included everything it said it would.
The markers were vibrant, and actually worked on the plastic baubles.
I put in the batteries, and pressed the switch, and watched it spin.
It didn’t play a tune like the TreeMendous, but whatever.
Next, to add the colour. It’s simple. Just hold the tip of the marker against the bauble while it spins.
It doesn’t look too bad while it’s spinning.
But when it’s stopped you can see just how uneven and patchy it is.
This could be user error. It could be the cheap markers, or it could be the very low quality plastic baubles. But still, it was fun and kinda addictive. So I did another one.
I don’t know if the actual TreeMendous had a steadier spin to it, but this one is really wobbly.
It’s hard to get a solid colour too. The markers are essentially cheap Sharpies. And because the plastic doesn’t absorb the ink, once you go over it more than once or twice in the same place it all starts to come up.
Jasper helped with that one.
There’s no bad rainbow though.
At least until I messed it up by trying to do a nice black spiral.
I stopped after my fourth bauble was a total disaster.
Warning though, the ink never dries and it WILL smudge off as soon as you touch it.
Overall it’s a neat little gimmick. Kids would probably love it. I couldn’t figure out a way to buy more of the baubles, and I couldn’t find any other baubles with the same screw fitting. They might be out there.
If there was a grown up crafter version – with ceramic baubles maybe, and ink that would stick to it – I’d probably get it. Come to think of it, it couldn’t be too hard to make a manual version…..
Crafted By Colette 