Create the perfect centerpiece highlighting your upland hunting prizes
By Mikayla Peper
You’ve been pheasant hunting all season long and you’ve collected a few stunning pheasant feathers, what do you do with them now? Instead of letting them sit off to the side somewhere, take advantage of the beautiful tail feathers and create a centerpiece yourself to celebrate the holiday season.
Let me walk you through how I created a Christmas themed table centerpiece highlighting pheasant feathers for about $10. My favorite part of this idea, is I was able to forage for a lot of these materials outside right around me, and I can put them back outside when the holidays are over. If you want to create something to use year after year, you can absolutely invest in fake materials when you purchase additions you want such as Christmas bulbs or bows.
Here’s my list of materials and the cost if I purchased it:
- Pine branches (short and long pine needles)
- Pheasant tail feathers
- Paper plate
- Floral foam (Michael’s $6.99 for a pack of four)
- Hot glue gun and glue sticks
- Bow (Dollar Tree $1.25 for a pack of two)
- Ornaments (Dollar Tree $1.25 for a pack of five)
- Ornament hooks (Walmart $0.98)
- Candle
- Scissors
- Clear tape
My goals for this project were to:
- Spend as little money as possible, and
- Source natural materials.
If you have minimal decoration storage like me, then you’ll enjoy not having to pack this all away in a few weeks.
I started by flipping the paper plate upside down and using hot glue to secure the floral foam to the plate.
Then, I mapped out where I wanted the bulbs to go to ensure they were evenly spaced. I poked holes through the plate with my scissors and then secured the ornaments using the hooks and clear tape.
Once the ornaments were secured, I started placing branches at all points of the foam block to start evenly filling in the spaces.
I really enjoyed having two types of pine needles, I thought this added a very interesting diversity in texture. Plus, the bigger needles cover up a lot of space.
Before the foam got too full, I placed my candle in the center. This is a real candle I already had, but if you want to have it lit, perhaps you have a battery-operated candle or you can buy one.
As I continued to place branches in the foam, I took a moment to find a spot for my tail feathers. Since they’re so long, I placed them on top and angled them upwards.
Then, I placed my bow I got from dollar tree, and tied it to one of the branches using a twist tie.
A helpful tip:
Cut several single branches like the one pictured. Towards the end of the project there were many small holes where the floral foam was still exposed, and my bigger branches couldn’t fit. This worked well to put the final touches on the piece!
Before you know it, you’ll have a completed piece before your eyes!
This is an excellent way to show off your upland adventures from this season. I’ve never done something like this before, and it was very easy and fun to assemble – I highly encourage you to give it a try! I think next time I do something like this, I might invest in a small pot to hold the centerpiece, but I appreciate how budget friendly this version is. It really doesn’t take much; a lot of things you may already have, or you can easily find materials nearby.
Cheers to you and yours this Christmas, and happy decorating!