At the end of November, my parents and I went to visit the local annual Festival of Trees. There are so many beautiful trees and wreaths to look at, and they always have a section for wreaths and trees made from recycled items. This year, we saw the most beautiful tree made from an old book that was attached to a cone shape and decorated with little fake berries and what-not. My mom and I decided to make one ourselves, and here is how we did it:
First, we found an old book at a local bookstore. I chose a German version of "Heidi" -- I figured if I couldn't read it, then I wouldn't feel as bad about taking it apart. We took the book apart, and cut the pages into quarters. You will also need a styro-foam cone, sewing pins, and some fake berries -- they can be any size you wish.
To attach the paper to the styro-foam tree, I would scrunched up my paper and poke a pin through the middle. My mom was scrunching/folding her paper -- almost like little rosettes -- and then poking the pin through a part of the paper where the pin would be hidden.
I would then attach the paper to the tree. It would, at this point, be almost completely un-scrunched, so, once it was attached to the styro-foam cone, I would scrunch it up again.
We continued this trend all the way to the top of the tree, and I would occasionally stop to give my tree and extra little scrunch. My mom's tree is the one on the left, and mine is the one to the right.
Then, we took our berries and used them to fill in any spots where you could see the styro-foam cone. This is my mother's tree in all is splendour -- can you tell where I got my crafty abilities from?
This is my completed tree! As you can see, I chose smaller berries, while my mom went with the larger berries. I worked with a taller styro-foam cone, while my mom went with a smaller one.
And this is our trees together. Mine is taller -- just like I'm taller than my mom :)
My tree has made its home the bookshelf in our living room. What I love so much about this idea is that it doesn't have to be a decoration just for Christmas; I feel like I could leave my tree out all year long!
Thanks so much! It was a lot of fun to do...but so are most crafts :)
ReplyDeleteso have to try this...
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