Oh, Christmas Tree!

The other day I posted some pictures of some trees I sold at a craft show. I got a few responses from people asking me how I made them - so I thought I'd post a tutorial for one of them! I don't think I've ever posted a tutorial before, so I hope I don't miss a step. It's a little nerve wracking, to be honest. I think my fear of writing instructions goes back a long way.

When I was in third grade, our teacher did an exercise with us where we had to write instructions for making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The next day, she brought peanut butter, jelly, bread, and a knife and used our directions to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Suffice it to say, most of the instructions we'd written were complete bunk. Very few pb&j's were made correctly. I can't remember if my instructions were good or bad, but I do remember being embarrassed by how bad some of the others were.

That having been said, let's begin!

Here's what you need: 

* A Styrofoam cone (any size)

* Two feet of felt (any color)

* Hot glue gun and glue sticks

* Scissors

* Spray paint

The first thing I did was spray paint my white cone red so that the uncovered parts of the cone wouldn't be as obvious. I used Krylon "red pepper" spray paint, though of course you may use any color you'd like.

While the paint dries, cut out about 70 3.5 inch circles from the felt. I used a cup to trace a circle, and I don't stress about the circles being perfect. Life's too short.

Once you're done with that, go ahead and take a break. Stretch your back a bit, get a drink of water, text your crush, and take a trip to the bathroom.

Ready to start back in? Ok, now that you have all those circles, you follow these steps! Put some hot glue about half way across the circle, and fold it over. Then put more hot glue in the center of the taco shape and fold it over again! As seen below:

Do that for a long time and try really hard not to burn your fingers. I bought some hot glue finger pads (as pictured) and they're pretty great. Not fool proof (gloves would be better), but they help.When you're done, you are ready to start gluing them on your cone!

Start at the bottom and work your way up, staggering to cover as much as possible. It's ok if it doesn't cover every last bit though - that's why we sprayed the tree form in the first  place. This part goes pretty quickly, and when you're done, you have this beautiful tree! I made a little cone and placed it over the top of the tree to top it off.

Pretty magical, if I do say so myself! And it can easily be done in a couple hours while you're watching a Christmas movie. Happy crafting!