Easy peasy tree tutorial

I did a phone interview with a local writer, Mary Jessica, yesterday. She is working on an article for the paper on local crafters and their holidays. One question - "what is your must have craft material or tool?" - was hard for me to answer. I got lots of stuff - materials and tools - but I have gathered and saved for years. I really cannot answer that question. The other question was fairly easy - "what can you tell people who are unsure of their creative abilities?" My answer -- Just jump in there and do something. Anything. Do one thing that triggers that side of your brain to function. It was exciting to talk with her and I cannot wait to read the article.

I mentioned yesterday that I was planning some tutorials. Here is the first one.
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EASY PAPER TREES

Gather the following. Admission here - I rarely gather it all up before, I kinda work as I go, but I have a studio with lots of accessable items to pull from.

Rectangular paper (I used old book and hymnal pages)
Glue Stick
Scissors
Wooden skewers (I got mine at the grocery store on the dollar rack)
Bead or other object to put on the point of the skewer. (this will make sense later)
Spool or wood block with a hole close to the size of the skewer for your base. You could also use a styrofoam block.
Embellishments (the fun stuff)


That plastic cone is a nice add on. I saved it from a party AFTER I drank the mixed drink it contained. But it is not a necessity.

Roll your paper into a cone. Glue your edges securely.

Here's what you get after rolling. The cone may be somewhat flimsy - mine was - so I rolled another one the same size and simply nested the two together.

Trim the wide end of your cone level. That plastic cone helps here. I like the jagged rough edge from tearing against the edge of the plastic. Here's what you end with after this step.

Cut your skewer off to the height of the tree plus the amount you want for a trunk. I just break mine because stuffing it into the wooden spool hides the end.

Here is the mechanical stack up - bead on pointed end of skewer - the other end stuck in the base. You can glue these into place or not. I'll take mine apart to store them so no glue on this step for me.

Pre-assembly. Balance the cone on the bead. How easy is that.

Embellish to your hearts desire. I stamped these with snowflake images then embossed them. I punched cardboard stars and embossed them too. To mount the stars, I simply cut little slits in the opening at the cone point and slid the stars in.

These are addicting to make. I may invert some of the cones and make hanging cones for my tree too. Just eliminate the skewer assembly and glue on a ribbon for hanging. Once I started rolling cones last night, I rolled and glued about 25 in just a few minutes. I can see a forest of these in different heights across my mantle.

If you make some of these please let me know, I would love to see yours.

Have a wonderful day.