Sparkleclean and APW, Making these is on my to do list for the winter. I'm certainly not artistic in any way, so how do you get the outline to look so much like the real thing?
Im not sure how APW did it, but i used a bright flood light inside a reflective shield (the old kind you used to use working on a car in the garage with a clamp on it and a metal reflective shield) and i taped a little tree freshner in front of it. That gave me a shadow in a dark room. It wasnt perfect but i only needed to trace half of the image onto the 3/4 pt plywood. Then i cut out that half, and once done i traced that half onto cardboard and cut that out to transfer the image to the second half. This way the two sides matched. I cut it with a handheld jig saw. I rushed to get it done before this christmas, so after the holiday i will clean up the edges and repaint it nicer as well as add something to the bottom, but it gets the point across for now.
I considered doing it out of 1/2" 4x8 kleer sheets (pvc panels) but they are all white and i wasnt sure how they would handle being painted colors. The pt plywood i used was thick and already dry enough that 2 coats of exterior paint covered it ok. I only painted 1 side and the edges and used an entire quart of paint. I think these could be made for just under $100 each and would take maybe 2- 3 days to do depending on paint drying time.
I have a contact at tss signs and i sent these pics to him. I think tss could make these trees out of corrugated plastic, the kind they use for the antenna signs, and could potentially be much cheaper. Or at least mich lighter ......lol i actually asked them why they arent doing more christmas related stuff for car washes. I would like to see wash specific oversized christmas decorations, both lighted and unlighted available. The christmas decoration market is pretty big and no manufacturer has jumped on it yet, except for a couple santa inages on some signs.