DIY: Holiday Tree

Raise your hand if you have a little home.
(raised)
Raise your hand if you're are not too fond of cut trees.
(raised)
Raise your hand if you just like making stuff.
(raised)
Raise your hand if you just want to save some moo-lah.
(raised)

Make your own (insert holiday you celebrate) tree/cutout!

What you will need:

• cardboard (as long or as small as you would like)
• scissors
• exacto knife
• metal ruler
• fabric/wrapping paper colors of your choice (as long or as short as your "branches")
• adhesive (I used fabric glue but I imagine mounting tape would work just as fine)
• measuring tape
• black marker
• cutting mat (if you don't have one you can just use a piece of cardboard ;)

STEP 1: Find that special wall in your house and measure the height and width you would like your tree to be. My tree is about 3 feet high and its longest branch is 18 inches. Once you've decided draw a line the length of your tree like so

STEP 2: Make the branches. You could do a more realistic branch if you want and you can have as many branches as you like but I wanted to go more abstract and make it look more like panels and opted for less branches. For my tree, I made six branches so I started by making the bottom branch the longest and then worked my way up decreasing each branch by a few inches.

Till I got this rough format.

STEP 3: Refining. As you can see from the above picture, some of my branches came out being the same size and not as straight as I would have hoped. This is where the exacto knife and metal ruler come in handy!

Make some lines and make those branches mighty fine!

STEP 4: Apply your fabric or wrapping paper. Cut appropriate pieces of your fabric for each branch and adhere to cardboard. I left an inch around each side so the edges would be clean.

STEP 5: Your trunk! When I was done with my branches...I decided it needed a trunk so I cut out a little piece and applied a complimentary fabric like so

STEP 6: Hanging your tree! I had some 3M stickies lying around so I decided to use them. The great thing about this product is its damage free nature...which is muy bien when you are renting an apartment! All you do is peel, stick, and apply to that special wall!! I also decided to give it a bow as a topper...now my tree matches my headbands!

And VOILA. In less than a half hour you have a super cute holiday tree that you made!!! And who knows...maybe your cardboard was a pine tree once upon a long winter ago :)

Happy Holidays!! BE GOOD.Love, Jonnie