25 Ideas for the Holidays - #11 Crepe Paper Trees!

I had planned on sharing a few felt ornaments and patterns today but last night when I got my Felt/Crepe Paper box out I started messing around with the crepe paper.  One thing led to another and I came up with today's idea....

Crepe Paper Trees

Supplies:

Crepe Paper (color of your choice)
Thread & Needle or Sewing Machine
Cardstock (for the cone) or Party Hat
Glue Gun

Instructions:

1. First begin by cutting your crepe paper into desired lengths/width.  Mine are approx 1.5-2" wide.

2.  Next I started gently stretching one side of the crepe paper.  When you do so the crepe paper takes on a ruffly effect on the stretched out side.  All crepe paper is made differently so the amount of ruffle you get will depend on your crepe paper.

3. Now it's time to gather & stitch your crepe paper into a nice ruffle.  I started out doing it by hand and gave it up because it was too slow.  I simply gathered the crepe paper on the un-stretched side and fed it into the machine as shown.

here is what it looks like after it is sewn....

4. Make a cone from the cardstock - it can be tall and skinny, short and stout, or anything in between!  You'll end up with funky points on the bottom, I just snipped off any excess until the cone sat straight on the table.

5. Begin hot gluing the crepe paper ruffle around the bottom edge.  When I got near the point where I started I slowly curved my glue line about 1/2" above the last.  Once you get the gentle spiral going you can easily follow it right up the cone.

And here is what the finished neked tree looks like....

I ended up with so much crepe paper that I had enough for 3 trees plus a little extra for another idea I'm going to share in the near future.    You can leave your tree unadorned or add little bits and bobs to decorate your tree.  It's totally up to you!

And the growing forest of trees...

Ho Ho Ho

12 Days Till Christmas!!!