How to Make DIY Birch Logs For a Cute Christmas Planter

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1. Cut the craft paper

I'm going to take some relatively thin craft paper and I'm going to cut it into strips.

2. Crumple the paper

Wrinkle them up like so, then stretch them out.

3. Cut the pool noodle

We're going to take a pool noodle and cut it into some different lengths. Just use a craft knife of any kind and it'll cut right through.

4. Trim the paper strips

Take these strips of paper and cut them so they're just a little bit longer than it takes to wrap around the pool noodle.

5. Glue the paper strips to the pool noodle

Paint some of the Mod Podge on the end of the pool noodle, then wrap that paper, adhering it right to the pool noodle. We're going to keep going down our pool noodle, overlapping them. When the whole thing is finished, put a coat of Mod Podge over the entire thing.

6. Paint the faux birch logs white

I'm just going to paint it with white acrylic paint.

I have my pieces of pool noodle covered with the Mod Podge and then painted. I put two coats of paint on them and if you look really closely you can see that it kind of cracked a little bit. This wasn't a crackle paint but this is great because it really resembles bark.

7. Cover the end of the pool noodle

Now I am leaving this end exposed and I'll show you why later but I need to cover this end. So I'm just going to put my pool noodles down on a piece of cardboard and cut a circle small enough that it will fit down inside the edge of the paper.

I'm going to go ahead with my low temp glue and just put it on there. Obviously, it doesn't have to go right in the middle because there's a hole in the middle of the pool noodle. I'm going to do that to all three pieces that I have painted.

8. Paint details on the faux birch logs

I actually have a birch bark planter here that I can look at and you can see how the bark looks. There are a lot of these little knots on it so I will add some paint to do that. On the ends of the wood, let's see if we can get a color that is similar to what our bark looks like.

Now I'm going to start to add some interesting texture to the logs with paint. I have my paper plate paint palette here and I'm going to put some gray out on it, some black, and a little more white.

After you're done painting all your little lines and whatever colors you want, take some of the white paint and just lightly go over all of your little lines. You're not trying to hide them, you're not trying to cover them up, you're just softening them, which makes them just a little more natural.

9. Make the Christmas planter

This is a plastic pot that I use over and over again and I have filled it with some styrofoam. I'm going to start with a pretty heavy-duty garland and wrap this around like so and that will stay there no problem.

I headed to Michael's and picked up these pretty full and long bushy branches. Plus, I've gotten several more varieties of evergreen picks. You can find what you like, things that are more natural, things with pine cones, things with berries.

Pick whatever you would like and you're just going to stick those down into the styrofoam. You have to make sure that they stick so that they don't wobble out of there.

10. Insert the faux birch logs into the planter

Now it's time to add our birch logs. The reason I didn't finish those ends is that I can stick a dowel rod right up in there and right down in the styrofoam.

It looks like we've added some pretty birch logs to our arrangement. Look how pretty that looks already.

Christmas planter with DIY faux birch logs

Look how beautiful this turned out. It adds so much to my fireplace. What do you think of this cute Christmas planter and these DIY faux birch logs?