real
rainbow
eucalyptus
bark

Thanks to Georgia for sending this in!

This is a surprisingly simple craft that looks great when complete! 

It's meant to look like an Rainbow Eucalyptus tree, though I think we didn't use quite enough green on ours.  Either way, it's very pretty.

Materials:

• paper towel roll
• tempra paint (we used yellow, red, brown and green)
• paint
• sharp pencil
• lid (we used a green one from a peanut butter jar, but a margarine container, salsa jar or olive jar lid would work too)
• tacky glue or low temp hot glue gun
• Optional:  acrylic spray, white glue or glossy mod podge

Instructions:

• Poke about 6 holes in the paper towel roll with a sharp pencil.  (Poke one on either side at three different levels on the tube).  When you poke the holes, put them in at a bit of an angle so in the end result the pencils don't fall out and look like the branches of a tree.
• Paint the tube with yellow paint.  (You could use light gray instead).
• While still wet, stripe on some red, brown and green lines up the tube.
• While everything is still wet, take the paint brush and clean and dry it.  Now stroke the wet paint up the tube all the way around to blend and soften the stripes.
• Let dry.
• Paint over the whole project with acrylic spray sealer, white glue or glossy mod podge.  This gives it a nice shiny finish.
• Using tacky glue or a hot glue gun, attach the paper towel roll to the jar lid to give it a stable base.
• Push some new pencils into the tree.

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