These life-sized cardboard Christmas trees offer a significant expression however are so natural to make!What’s my favorite part?They can be put away flat.The entire tutorial can be found below!
This project hits everything on my DIY checklist — it’s affordable, it’s easy, and it’s upcycled. (Not to mention the fact that it’s super festive!) These cardboard Christmas trees are a must-try if you’re looking for a cheery project with a big payoff
WHY DO I LOVE THESE CARDBOARD TREES SO MUCH?
I had an idea to create some Christmas trees that could somehow fold away flat for people with limited space, and I love how they turned out! They also ended up to solve a few other holiday problems. These cardboard Christmas trees:
are totally free (if you have boxes laying around)
make a major holiday decor statement
are customizable in their shape and size
would be a perfect craft project for kids to decorate
can be neutral or colorful, depending on your preference
make use of recyclable materials
store flat to save space
can be used year after year
I have become this project’s biggest fan (in case you can’t tell). So let’s make some!
HOW TO MAKE CARDBOARD CHRISTMAS TREES
Materials
cardboard sheets or boxes
box cutter
scissors
yard stick
pencil
optional: saw
Instructions
Gather your cardboard. If you have extra large boxes or sheets, you can make taller trees. You can cut open boxes and lay them flat to maximize your cartdboard. It’s also worth asking friends or neighbors for theirs!
Trace a tree onto a sheet of cardboard with your pencil. Consider the size and shape you’d like, and ensure that your tree is symmetrical. Keep in mind that to create one standing tree, you’ll need three flat cardboard trees of the exact same size.
If you’re using a saw, it’s really easy to layer 3 pieces of cardboard and cut them all out at the same time. If you’re using scissors or a box cutter, just cut out three trees by hand.
Trace a pencil line down the center of each tree. With your box cutter, carefully slice down the pencil line, being sure to only pierce one side of the cardboard (leave the side that’s face-down intact). If you’re using very thin cardboard, you can probably skip this step and just crease your trees down the middle so that they can fold in half.
Cut two small circles of cardboard (about 4″ in diameter).
Fold each tree in half. Create two slits in each tree on the fold, one high and one low on the tree. The slits should be less than half the depth of your cardboard circles (ours are 1.5″).
Insert the circles into the slits of one of the folded trees and open the tree enough to stand. Add the other two trees onto the circles.
MORE THINGS TO DO WITH YOUR CARDBOARD CHRISTMAS TREES
Initially, my plans were to paint these trees bright, festive colors. But when they came together in this natural kraft cardboard color, I loved them just as they were! So with your trees, dress them up any way you like!
I really love the idea of making one of these for a child and handing them a bunch of art supplies to decorate it. I’m thinking markers, glue, pompoms, sequins, stickers — whatever they like.
I think these would also look incredible in a group of lots of them — a recyclable forest! Hope you try these out.
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You only need two cookie sheets, parchment paper, navel and blood oranges, jute or natural twine, a skewer or nail, and decorative hooks to string your own strand.Continue reading for all of the steps:
1.Heat the oven to 250°F.
2.Four oranges make a six-foot garland, so slice them crosswise into 1/4-inch slices.
3.Utilize parchment paper to line cookie sheets.Using paper towels, dry the orange slices and arrange them in a single layer on cookie sheets.
4.Bake for about three hours, or until the top is dry.Turn the slices over at the halfway point to ensure that they dry flat.)Take out of the oven.
5.Make two holes in the top of each orange slice with a skewer or a nail.
6.Place the oranges on the garland evenly apart by threading twine through each hole.Hang from hooks and secure each end with a loop.
My mother made numerous handmade Christmas ornaments and decorations when I was a child.Playing with all of the ornaments and arranging them on the tree was my favorite part of Christmas.
Twenty-five years later, my mother was attempting to persuade me that we should divide all of our childhood ornaments among myself, my brother, and sister.”You can’t split up all those old, tattered memory-filled ornaments!” was all I wanted to say.They should always be on your tree!haha… despite the fact that I have my own children, my own Christmas tree, and my mother hasn’t put up those handmade ornaments in years, I guess that sentimental attachment hasn’t disappeared.
When you were a kid, did you play with the ornaments on your Christmas tree?It was, I swear, one of my favorite Christmas activities!My goal has always been to have a Christmas tree that my children can play with.As a result, I rarely purchase designer boring sparkling balls.I also have nothing that can be broken.My tree isn’t very popular, and it probably won’t be featured in any magazines. However, I really hope that my kids will enjoy it as much as I did our tree when I was a kid!
I’m aware of this.These Christmas ornaments made of pom poms and pinecones are so simple!But what do you know?They are going to look amazing on our tree, and they turned out to be surprisingly beautiful!The best part was that my five-year-old and three-year-old could both help make them.Even for a three-year-old, they are pretty much foolproof!
Pom Poms and Pinecones Ornament Tutorial
These are super easy! And they look amazing! Here’s what you’ll need:
Pinecones
Tiny pom poms
String or ribbon
Hot glue gun
These pom poms are really small. I got them from the dollar store and they were the perfect size to fit in the pinecones.
Start by adding a small glob of hot glue to the underside of the pinecone “branches”.
Then stick a tiny pom pom onto the dab of glue.
Repeat for all the the pinecone tips. The little pom poms look just like ornaments hanging from a tree!
It goes pretty quick!
Then take about 11″ of string or ribbon and hot glue it to the top of the pinecone. We used this gold chain looking ribbon from the dollar store. I was pretty generous with the hot glue and they feel pretty secure.
Maybe I’m a risky mom here, but I let both my three year old and five year old use the glue gun. They were sooooo excited and they actually did really well with it! It’s just one of those cheap, tiny glue guns, so it doesn’t get very hot.
I had to peel away a lot of glue strands when they were finished, but they cleaned up really well. And now my girls are going to be so excited to hang them on the tree!
It’s still way too early to put up the Christmas tree, so I had to improvise a little bit for the photos. Yup, that’s the kids swing set in the background of this next photo!
And I never realized it, but we don’t have any evergreen trees on our property. So this next photo uses a branch that hangs over our fence by about 18″. Of course our neighbour walked out into the backyard at exactly the same time I was shooting these photos. She probably thinks I’m a bird watcher now. But on the bright side, the branch gives a nice preview of what these ornaments will look like on the Christmas tree.
They’re really simple, but I love how they look natural and quirky at the same time!
Picture the event with us while you close your eyes:The sound of tiny feet pitter-pattering fills the air on Christmas morning.In anticipation of discovering what treasures Santa left under the Christmas tree, they rush down the staircase.What decorations are on the staircase?We are here to assist if the response is “it isn’t.”Decorate your banister in an elaborate holiday style with lights, bows, and garlands in abundance to make this moment as magical in real life as it is in your head.
For the holidays, we devote a significant amount of time and effort to interior and exterior decorating.If you’re anything like Clark Griswold—you know who he is—you decorate your outdoor Christmas tree extravagantly.Christmas kitchen decorations, which make the heart of the home an even more popular spot, and Christmas living room decor (complete with a trimmed tree adorned with precious handmade Christmas ornaments, of course) tend to really amp up the cheer inside.Traditional evergreen Christmas garland, twinkling lights, bows, personalized Christmas stockings, and other festive decorations can be used to give your staircase and railings the same holiday treatment as the rest of your house.
These Christmas decorations for your staircase promise a grand and festive entrance whether you’re going up for good night’s sleep or down to start your day.(Ha!) Step up!your game by using these concepts.
Easy to make and adorable, these tea light snowman ornaments look great!Who would have thought that you could use tea lights from the dollar store to make such a cute Christmas ornament?The “flame” transforms into the carrot nose of the snowman when the tea light is turned on!Discuss lovable!
Unless it was a holiday and the candles were sitting on the dining room table with everyone watching as we ate, my mother never let us burn candles when we were kids.When the holiday dinner was over, we would then quickly light the candles.I don’t know if that’s normal.However, for us, it was absolutely normal.
My mother, being the overprotective, anti-fire person she is, completely introduced me to battery-operated candles.For the past few months, I’ve had a few flameless candles on my mantle, and I love how peaceful they are!Additionally, you can purchase flameless battery operated candles! I don’t know if you’ve seen them!or, at the very least, fake flames that only look real from a distance of a few feet.
For a few months, I had four flameless candles and three faux flame candles on my mantle.When my husband pointed out that our mantle looked like a shrine with all of the candles up there, I was really enjoying them.Ha!I had to find new homes for some of them because he pretty much destroyed the grouping for me.Men!
Although they won’t win any awards for making people believe they have a real flame, these dollar store tea lights are perfect for these tiny snowman ornaments.Did you at any point figure a phony plastic fire could fill in for a snowman nose?I’m sure I didn’t!However, it pretty much resembles a carrot in every way!
Here’s what you’ll need:
Battery operated tea lights
A Black Sharpie
Red Ribbon
Red Pipe Cleaners
Red Pom Poms
Black Felt
Orange Sharpie
Glue Gun
Here’s what my tea lights look like from the side. See how the “flame” kind of curves a bit? You’ll want to position the face, so that the flame is pointing up. It just makes for a better looking carrot nose.
Use the black Sharpie to draw a simple face onto the tea light. You can use googly eyes if you want, but I preferred the look of the black dots.
Cut a piece of red pipe cleaner to approximately 2.5″ long.
Curve it around the tea light and then add a small line of hot glue on both ends to hold it in place. Don’t glue it the entire way around because you’ll need to be able to slide the ribbon under the pipe cleaner later.
Add a generous dab of hot glue where the ears would be and add the pom poms. Now your snowman has ear muffs!
Cut out a piece of ribbon to be approximately 4.5″ long. Then cross it over itself like in the picture below and add a small dab of hot glue to hold it together. I found this was the best way to make the ribbon look like a scarf.
Add a small line of glue to the back of the “scarf” like in the picture below:
And then glue it to the back of the tea light like in this picture:
The scarf should naturally pop back to the position shown below without adding more glue.
Cut a piece of the thinner red ribbon to be approximately 11″ long and then slide it under the pipe cleaner.
Then tie a tiny knot in the ribbon to keep it together.
The tea light flame is white when it’s turned off so you’ll probably want to colour it orange with a marker to make it look like a carrot, even when the tea light is turned off.
I definitely recommend using an orange Sharpie for this next part. I didn’t have one, so I had to resort to using one of the kids Crayola markers. It worked for the time being, but it rubs off really easily, so it’s not going to last very long.
Here’s the finished snowman with the ear muffs. So cute!
Since a little variety is always fun, I also made a little snowman with a top hat. I cut a strip of black felt to be approximately 1-1/4″ wide. And then I cut pieces like in the photo below. The ribbon is just a scrap of gift wrapping ribbon I had.
Glue the hat together with some hot glue, so you end up with something like this:
Since there’s no pipe cleaner to hold it in place on this one, you’ll need to glue the ribbon right to the tea light. Add a generous dab of hot glue to the tea light, add the ribbon, and then add another generous dab of hot glue, and it should keep it all in place.
Here’s how the collection looked with the flames turned off. I think the noses would be a much better orange colour if I had used an orange Sharpie instead of a Crayola marker.
And when you turn them on, they look awesome!
I love how cute the happy family of snowmen look!
Don’t forget to write the year on the back with the Sharpie before you finish!
If you can find little magnets that don’t cover the on/off switch on the back, these would also make adorable fridge magnets!
With this dish, you can carry on a morning tradition with as much time as possible for fun.
The best brunch dish to prepare ahead of time is this quiche.On Christmas Eve, make the egg mixture and store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator.Bake according to the instructions on the package until December 25.Easy!
INGREDIENTS
1tbsp. olive oil, plus more for pan
2 medium leeks, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4oz. thinly sliced deli ham, torn into pieces
8 large eggs
1c. crème fraîche
1c. whole milk
1tbsp. Dijon mustard
4 ounces Gruyère cheese, grated (about 1 cup)
2tbsp. chopped fresh chives
2tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
DIRECTIONS
Step 1 Preheat oven to 325°F. Lightly oil a 2-quart baking dish.
Step 2Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add leeks and onion. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Add ham; cook until liquid is evaporated, 2 to 3 minutes.
Step 3Beat together eggs, crème fraîche, milk, mustard, and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper in a bowl. Fold in cheese, chives, parsley, and leek mixture; transfer to the prepared pan.
Step 4 Bake until just set, 45 to 55 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.
