Decoration: Paper Christmas Tree

I saw this Christmas Tree in a magazine. It was just in the background (like a prop), but it caught my eye. I knew I had to try to make one. This is how I did it...


At Hobby Lobby I bought styrofoam cones (there are lots of different sizes - I think I will make several and have a small forest of Christmas trees). You can get white cones in the craft section or green ones in the floral section. I paid $4.50 for a pack of 2 small cones. The other supplies were some old books (you can get these cheap from Goodwill or yard/garage sales) that I didn't mind tearing up, scissors, a pencil and glue (I really liked the Aleen's with the brush - I felt I had a little more control).




I tore out several pages out of one of the books.


I traced the bottom of the cone on one of the pages and then cut it out a little larger than the circle that I had traced.




Then I cut small slits from the edge to the drawn circle. Then fold them up (it will make the next step easier).



Brush the bottom and the little flaps with glue and set the cone in the center of the circle that you had previously traced, then fold up the slits. You can use a rubber band to hold them in place. Note: The glue will not stick to the styrofoam very well, but it will work out in the end.


Then take one of your other pages and wrap it around the cone (my page was big enough to over lap some - you really want this). Since the glue will not adhere to the styrofoam very well, you need the paper to over lap so you can glue the paper back onto itself.


Trim off any extra.




Do the top the same way that you did the bottom (you can also do this the same time that you do the bottom - I did not think far enough ahead and had to do it in this step). Continue wrapping the cone with pages until it is completely covered. You want it covered so the styrofoam won't show through (especially if you use styrofoam (green) that is a different color than your pages).

Here it is covered...


Now, take your pages and fold them in half lengthwise (do not crease), and glue the long edges together. Hopefully you can see my glue at the top edge of the page before folding.






Then you cut slits up to the glue line (every 1/2 inch or so).


Wrap that around the cone somewhere near the bottom.


There will be places that will gap at the glued edge (this is due to the cone shape), cut a small slit at the gap and over lap, seal with glue.


If it does not meet (and that strictly depends on the size of your paper and the size of your cone), you can piece it.






Repeat with the next row, this time a little higher than the last row (the closer they are together, the fuller your tree will be, I wish I had spaced mine a little bit further apart so my tree wasn't quite as full - maybe next time).

Continue until you reach the top and you are finished.

Now you have a paper Christmas tree. I like it just the way it is, but you could spray paint it (green and then flock it with white to look like snow, or gold, silver, or whatever your color scheme is). You could also use construction paper or pretty scrapbook papers.