Back in the day I used to make lots of my own Christmas decorations. I’ve made wreaths, canvas drawings, ornaments and Christmas trees. Some of my wreaths have broken over the years due to poor storage, but the items that seem to have withstood the test of time are my mini trees. I made these trees over 5 years ago and they are all in great condition, even enduring the kids using them as pretend swords when I bring them out.
This year as we were taking out the Christmas decorations I shared with Emma that the trees that she was placing on display were ones I made a long time ago. She said “wow those look like you bought them at the store!” She’s 6 and oh so kind 🙂
Anyway I told her how easy they are to make and I promised her we would make one together and so I thought I’d share on here how easily these can he made as well.
Things you’ll need:
An empty cereal box, or snack box of any kind
Scissors
Hot glue gun (with extra glue sticks)
Staples (optional)
Ribbon or string or any other deco item you want to glue onto your tree
Below is my step by step process to creating the mini tree.
This is the box I used. In the past I’ve used cereal boxes, a ritz cracker box, anything really that’s small and can bend easy.
Open the box where it’s glued together and lay it flat.
Cut off all the extra edges and only leave the rectangular box with even edges.
Next you’re gonna start rolling it at an angle to make it in the shape of a cone, or tree. As you can see here, after I began rolling I realized I didn’t need that much of the cardboard so I cut off a side and made the rectangle even smaller. It’ll be easier to handle this way.
Once you’ve rolled it to your desired cone shape, start securing the tree by either gluing it with hot glue or staples. I first used staples to secure it at the bottom, I then secured it further with the hot glue.
At this point, the tree won’t be perfect, you’ll see staples and glue. It’s doesn’t matter. You’re going to cover it with your deco, no one will know.
I had this ribbon that I used in my real tree last year that I didn’t want to use this year so I decided to recycle it and use it as my tree filler. Its got the iridescent pink and green mermaid like shimmer to it. Perfect for nautical or winter wonderland themes. The ribbon was already cut in about foot long pieces which was perfect.
I start at the top and work my way down, gluing generously so that it won’t come apart. I went over all the edges a few times so you won’t see the brown cardboard at the end.
This tree took me about 30 minutes to complete. And now I have another tree to add to my collection.
Xoxo,
Reyna ❤️
