This year my boyfriend and I unfortunately could not get a Christmas tree. Mainly because during the time that we should have bought it to make the cost worthwile and to guarantee we get the most use out of the tree overall, we decided that groceries were more important than trees. Apparently food turned out to be more important than Christmas ... who knew? ;-) As we are going to be spending Christmas with my family at their house this year anyways a tree wasn't really necessary, however I was still despondent over this and I decided to make my own tree. I scoured the internet for tutorials so I wouldn't unnecessarily waste my supplies on trial and error (around this time I also realized that I was dangerously low on glue, and I was told that crafting supplies are not more important than gas that would get us to work). I liked the trees I found so much that I decided to do more than one. There were other trees I wanted to make as well but alas I did not have all the supplies for those. So all in all I ended up making 6 paper Christmas trees. Here they are:
The first one I made was the Tissue Paper Tree using
this tutorial from AliLily:
I also glued sequins for ornaments and I topped it with two circle stickers. This is also where I realized that not having a glue gun is stupid and wastes a lot of time. After that a glue gun became the number one item I wanted most for Christmas.
Next came the Paper Cone Trees. I used the template found on
Paper View.
The first tree was made with Webster's Pages materials. The other two with Bo Bunny. I found the gold bead topper in my stash and I thought it was an awesome find. I love how it made the little tree come together. I redid the stacked tree like twenty times because it wasn't turning out right. I finally figured out that I need to wrap each layer tighter that the one below it. I felt ridiculously slow that it took me a few tries to figure that one out. This is also where a glue gun would have come in handy because I had to tape the edges together. Oh well this is why there is a front and back right?
Then we have my Button Tree. I did not use a tutorial for this one because really ... incredibly self explanatory right?
I used a green paper cone because I knew there would be uncovered spots. The big spots I covered with brads. I actually ended up running out of glue on this tree so I used glue dots. I also ran out of green buttons towards the top so I used blue buttons ... it kinda matches right?
The last tree took me the longest. I mean I was working on this one for a couple of hours for three days. At the end my fingers hated me. I was inspired by a
tutorial from Taylor Designs though as you can see I definitely tweaked it
I ended up rolling the paper strips completely together so it looks like little logs. Yes this added to the headache and no I have no idea why I did it like that. Though I do have to say that I love love love how it turned out. I think it looks better than the other way so I am so glad that I did it this way. This is also the tree that completely depleted my supplies of glues dots which is probably the main reason that I did not continue.
After making all these trees I ended up not even putting them up at my house! No they are decorating my cubicle at work where I spend most of my waking hours at anyways so I am able to enjoy them more. The best part is that people are coming over just to look at them. Since I have started this job I have become known as the crafty girl and people stop by to see my creations every once in a while. Which is really flattering.
I hope you guys enjoyed these trees and are inspired to make your own!
