Be My Bee: "How To" Time....Make Paper Christmas Trees

Friends,

Are you ready for some crafting fun? I sure hope so. These trees are a breeze to make and I love how you can customize the size. This is the perfect little holiday decoration to get started on now so you can build up a bunch if you like over the next few weeks and you'll be ready for decorating after Thanksgiving.

I found the original directions for this "how to" on Pinterest, www.Pinterest.com (I'm so addicted to this site, you can find anything on there, it's like magic!) and just tweaked it a bit. Take a look at the original here, it's so pretty! http://crate.typepad.com/cratepaper/2010/09/lolly-chessies-famous-cp-christmas-trees.html

Here's mine :)

Gather up your materials:

* vintage book (or you could use newsprint, scrapbook paper, bills you don't want to pay...kidding, just any kind of light weight fairly sturdy paper will do. Tissue paper might be a little too flimsy to work with I think.
*scissors (I used scalloped edge scissors from Fiskars)
*scotch tape
*glass vase or small tea light holder (or any form that has the right shape - wider at base and narrows toward top, tea light holder is from the Dollar Store!)
*paintbrush (you'll be using the long handle) or pen or pencil
*white glue (I used Aleene's Tacky Glue, but any white liquid glue ought to work.
*glitter (optional! I used Martha Stewart's fine glitter)
*sponge brush
*wax paper
*paper plate

Assemble your materials. Cover your workspace with wax paper if you'll be painting or using glitter.

Tear out a few pages of your book, about 5-6 to start. Final amount will vary based on the size of your book and object you're covering.

Using your pencil/pen/or paintbrush gently curl your paper by rolling it around your paintbrush handle.

Keeping your cuts fairly even (about 1/2 " wide) make cuts along the rolled edge of the paper stopping at least 1 inch from the opposite edge.

Tape your paper to the base of the vase or object you're covering. I cut off the sides that were overlapping so that the "branches" would be fairly even.

Add these pages all the way to the top. Now to get your Christmas tree point just roll another piece of paper into a cone and measure it on top of your tree. Once you find the right fit go ahead tape your cone together inside and out and along the edges. Trim bottom if necessary ( I had to!)

Add a few more "mini" layers of book pages, trimming as necessary and taping on to the cone. Leave the tree as is or add glitter to the "branches" or add a tiny paper star on top.

Tea light form for Paper Christmas tree.

You can really use just about any form to create these trees. I used a tall tea light candle holder (purchased at the Dollar Store) and just scrunched and taped a book page to it to gain height and create a form to tape the other pages to.

Make a cone just as before and securely tape. Don't worry about adding too much tape, you'll be covering this with the book pages.

Using a dry sponge brush gently brush on a little gold paint. I like to paint on wax paper for easy clean up and the dry painted paper won't stick! Or paint the tips of the paper with a little white glue and sprinkle with glitter (I like using a paper plate underneath to catch the glitter so I can save it for my next project.)