I created a super easy tutorial on how to make one of the cute burlap Christmas tree decorations that you see all over the blogosphere this time of year. When I say easy.... I mean... like way, super, easy-peasy!!
Here is what you need:
• a craft cone (from a local craft store)
• a stack of burlap paper 6" square (mine is from Joann's)
• hot glue gun and glue
• scissors
That's it! You don't even have to have much in the way of crafting skills to make this one!
This burlap paper is fairly new (at least in my neck of the woods) but it's totally awesome!! It is burlap on one side and paper coated on the back. This means that you can cut the burlap into whatever shape you want and it won't fray!!!
I made this banner for the dessert table at a church Christmas party. See how you can cut through the burlap paper!??! I even used a hole punch to string my twine!!
Okay... enough drooling over this cool paper... start by tearing out a few pages of your burlap paper.
Then cut those into strips. Mine are 1-3/4" wide and I cut them across the width of the paper so I didn't have a piece with the hole in it. ☺
Now that your strips are cut, you are going to "fringe" it. Use your scissors and cut 3/4 of the way through the width of your strip. I made 4 cuts in my first couple of strips.
Now you are going to create the base for your tree. Using your hot glue gun, glue sections of the paper onto the cone about 1 inch at a time. Be sure to put the glue near the bottom of the cone because you ONLY want to GLUE THE BOTTOM of the paper (with the fringed edge on the TOP) to the cone.
Once you have glued the bottom of the paper to the cone, go back and glue the fringed top down. You will need to slightly overlap the fringed pieces so that your paper lays relatively flat. Repeat with another strip of paper until the bottom of your cone is covered. You will need to trim off any excess paper but be sure to overlap just a tiny bit when you add a new strip so there is no gap in your paper for you to see the cone.
Once the bottom of your cone is covered you can being to build your tree! Using a new strip of fringed paper, glue the TOP onto your cone. Your new paper should overlap the bottom layer about half way. Only glue the top part of your paper so that your fringed pieces can move. As you glue you will need to stretch or compress the paper so you can "mold" it to the rounded shape of the cone. This lifts the fringe pieces slightly as you glue.
When you add the next strip be sure to overlap slightly so that your fringed pieces keep a consistent look.
Do the same thing for the next 2 rows. As your cone gets narrower, you will find that it is easier to work with smaller pieces of paper. They are less likely to bunch up as you glue. On my fourth row, I cut my strip in half so that I had smaller pieces to work with.
When you get to the end of a strip and there is still some space left, cut a piece to fit and glue it down. Trust me... it's gonna happen more than once.... but you can't really screw this one up. If the space is too big for just one piece.. then use two!
The higher up on the cone you go, the smaller the piece you want to use. When I got to my 5th row, I cut smaller fringe pieces. I cut them in half, and then fringed each half into quarters instead of thirds. I even used pieces that only had two fringe pieces on them.
Closer to the top, I made my strips skinnier. So instead of being 1-3/4" wide, they were 1 inch wide. The last row on my tree I simple glued single fringe pieces. The cut a very small triangle piece to cover the point of the tree that the fringe didn't cover.
When you are done, your tree will look like the left side of this cone. To curl the pages gently fold the bottom of the fringe piece. You don't want to crease it... just bend it a little so that it flares out.
When you are done you should probably pull off the glue gun strings.... I obviously haven't done that yet... but I'm trying to get this up during nap time... and didn't have any time to spare! {you mom's know how that goes...}
Ta-da! You just made a very expensive looking burlap Christmas tree! Now, go and impress your friends with your mad glue gun skills!
I've never heard of burlap paper before, but it looks pretty cool. The tree is great and, like all DIY projects, can be customized in size and style to suit you. However, I really like the banner! Maybe it's the red and white twine that makes it so special. Thanks, Katie, for such interesting posts! Glad you'll still be blogging!
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