Monday, December 6, 2010

Magazine Christmas Trees

Apparently, making Christmas Trees with magazines has been around for years. I just discovered it this year....so I am a little behind! They are easy to make and turn out pretty cute! Start out with a nice sturdy magazine or catalog. I used a Silpada jewlery catalog for the big one, it had about 101 pages and you have to fold them all 3 times! The smaller one is a Scentsy catalog. The most important thing is that they hold up to the folding.
I removed the cover and started folding. This is a great craft to do while you are sitting on the couch "watching" football with your husband! Start by taking the top right corner, folding it down toward the spine to make a triangle.
Next, fold that triangle down again toward the spine to form this diamond shape. You will then fold the extra little piece up so that it will create a flat bottom.
Just keep folding and folding...you will eventually start to see how it will become a Christmas tree!
When you have all of your pages folded, glue the first and last page together so it doesn't seperate. I spray painted mine white, but you could do them in any color. I am on the lookout for little things to decorate them with. Glitter is a definite must! You could also do these with an old book. You wouldn't even need to paint them if you did this.
Right now these are sitting on our little faux fireplace, nestled among a snow covered rose garland. These are something that you could throw away at the end of the season and make new ones the next year. Or you could just keep adding to your collection each year as well, because that's just the way Christmas decorations seem to be!

8 comments:

Patti's Artful Design said...

I like the way these turned out, Trisha! I think I will put it on my project list! Thanks for sharing.

Unknown said...

I read your post on Nov 20. I hope you are doing better, with the sis in law and i hope your doggie is ok too :)
Life is so tough...I have my share of problems...but you know what. We do our best. Lovely blog. Looks like great recipe and i like that you are real. Following you back. Happy week :)
Hugs

~*~ saskia ~*~ said...

i love love your idea, Trisha. Have not seen it before.
Have a most wonderful Advent season! xxx

Catlyn Berry (Cizz) said...

This is truly neat! And just in time! I have a stack of magazines I was getting ready to dispose of. Hey! Looking at your trees, they would make really great gowns for angels...add a head/face, arms and wings, lol' just a thought!

Hugs' for the crafty inspiration!
Catlyn

Tammy @BeatriceBanks said...

Oh! I remember these from childhood! My mom had some. I had forgotten all about them. Seems everything comes back around. Cute!

Tara said...

HI Trisha,my german friend made me one of these two Christmas's ago and it's still holding up fine.Hope you having a great week..xx

Tiffanee said...

Those are beautiful!! I would of never guessed they were made out of magazines. Hey I am from Idaho. Grew up there and just moved to Washington 2 years ago.

Anonymous said...

I've never seen these magazine trees, but yours look very cute painted. Thanks for sharing your idea and for visiting my blog. I hope that you do try to make the cottage house. They really are easy to make, just time consuming waiting for everything to dry. I'm sure yours will be very nice too. :)