Mini Christmas Trees

These little trees are exactly what crafts should be: they're cheap and really satisfying to look at. How sweet for the center of a table, your buffet, or an end table. Amongst candles, lights, or ornaments, they would be especially lovely.

I used thin cardboard from a tissue box and a dryer sheet box from the recycling bin, duct tape, green floral tape, pretty tinsel-like yarn with lots of texture, scissors, and a glue gun. Depending on the items in your stash, this project is very nearly free!

First, you'll cut your cardboard into square/rectangle shapes. It doesn't really matter. And they don't have to be perfect. Because you'll be curling those pieces into a cone shape. Use the duct tape to hold that shape together. Then, cut the excess from the bottom so that your cone stands upright.

                                              

Next, use your floral tape, wrapping the entire tree. I used a dab of hot glue to hold the starting and finishing ends down. Floral tape just requires a little tugging as you work your way around the tree. The yarn that I used was not all that dense, so without this step pieces of cardboard and duct tape would be seen. Ick. The green of the floral tape is, of course, much nicer peeking through.

And now, we've got them all covered.

They're ready for the fun part now. Again, a little dab of hot glue at the beginning to hold down your yarn and you're ready to wrap them up. I didn't use glue throughout the process because it's not necessary. A dab of glue at the beginning and end holds everything together nicely.

Enjoy your beautiful, little trees!

Christmas Trees

I love Christmas decorations! The couple of months leading up to Christmas always find me creating something. Usually, my glue gun is nearby and my husband's voice is background noise, asking where we're going to store the finished product and why it's needed. :)

These Christmas trees are definitely needed.

To make them, I simply coiled up some cardboard into a cone shape (you could use cereal boxes, old packing materials, etc.), secured the closure with duct tape, and leveled off the bottom with scissors so that they'd stand straight. The cone shapes can be cut to any height or size you want, depending on where you want to place them in your home.

After creating the cone shape, I wrapped decorative ribbon and trimmings (even sequins trimming!) around the trees, securing it with dabs of glue from my glue gun as I went around.

For the other tree, I folded lengths of ribbon into loops and then, beginning at the base of the tree, layered those loops to build up a textured look.

I love my trees. They were so easy and inexpensive. And they're so pretty.

Make a bunch and put them wherever you'd like!