Paper Trees {Crafty Christmas}

Posted by Whitney on Dec 6, 2011 in DIY, For the Home, For the Kids | 35 comments

Since my last post about our new Advent Calendar, we have been having lots of fun doing the activities inside each little gift bag. For our game night we got a new game, Connect Four Launchers. That was a big hit, I mean what boy doesn’t love launching things across the table. Of course, the game ended with the launchers being used to blast each other with little red and yellow rings (okay, maybe I started it….maybe).

On Saturday we finally had a craft activity. We were instructed to create a little christmas tree out of something fun. I had purchased some gorgeous scrapbook paper at Michaels when they were having the 40% off scrapbooking supplies sale. Originally I was going to get those cone floral forms, but they are just too expensive and I knew I could come up with a way to make a form without spending almost $30. Luckily I came up with an idea that worked quite well.

So, we gathered supplies:
Scrapbook paper
Glue
Scissors
A pen/pencil
A large mixing bowl

To start I had each one of the boys choose a sheet of paper they liked, this would be used for the base of the tree. Then I traced the large bowl on the paper (it just happened to be the PERFECT size) and cut the circle out.

From there I cut from the edge to the center of the circle. This cut allowed me to make the circles into little cone shapes that were the perfect size for our project.

Then I just dabbed a little glue on to keep the cone shape and set it aside to dry.

While the cones were drying I had the boys pick out a few papers they liked and I cut strips about 2″ long across the width of the page. I gave each of the boys scissors and asked them to cut each long strip into many strips about 1/2″ wide. Bubby diligently cut little strips of paper while the Monkey chopped away with his little scissors, but the results were perfect. We turned the bowl we traced back over and tossed the pieces of paper in.

By now the tree forms were dry, time to start decorating our trees. I just instructed them to use their imaginations and decorate their trees however they wanted to. I used my pencil to slightly curl the pieces of paper up so I could use them as leaves. Then, starting at the bottom, I glued each piece of paper around my tree form in rings, all the way to the top. Bubby decided to use his paper pieces as ornaments and glued them all over his tree. Monkey also glued the paper pieces all over his tree.

In the end we had these very colorful, creative and unique little Christmas trees. Best of all I got to spend some quality time with my boys, being creative, talking, laughing and just watching their amazing little minds work. I am definitely pleased with how this advent calendar is really enriching our Christmas this year!