Paper Christmas Trees Tutorial (Easiest DIY ever. In the history of ever.)

Meet my new favorite craft, paper Christmas trees! 

Last year I saved a bundle of different tutorials on Pinterest on how to make paper Christmas trees. Evidently Anthropologie was selling some for an outrageous price and the DIY-ers united and decided to come up with their own. Makers gonna make.

After revisiting a few tutorials this year I wanted to make my own version of the paper tree.  I admit, I have a very hard time following another person's directions perfectly because something in me almost views it as a challenge, to see if I can successfully put my own creative spin on a project that's been done before.  Now if you've seen these exact same trees somewhere else, don't rain on my parade. :)  They are easy (like children can do this) to make and so addicting and so fun.  As in, while I'm trying to focus and type this I really want to be making more trees.  

Ok, let's get started friends! I taught a new bunch of gal pals how to make these last night and tried to capture at least enough pictures to give you an idea of what to do.  First, gather your supplies which are: an old book, a kitchen skewer, a tiny cardboard square, and a hot glue gun.  Optional supplies are washi tape, spray inks, scissors with a fun edge, and scrapbook paper.  But you really don't even need all that.  Not sure?  I'll show you! 

First, poke the kitchen skewer through the cardboard square until it is standing up straight through the cardboard.  Add a bit of glue around the skewer.  (a friend suggested using twigs if you don't have a skewer)

Next, Start by cutting three different sized squares or circles from your book pages.  I did this quickly by ripping out a whole stack of pages at once and then cutting a large square from one stack, a medium square from another stack of papers, and last a small square from the third stack of papers.  I didn't measure any of the squares but just eye-balled it.  It's even more fun if you use scissors with a scalloped blade to get a neat looking edge on your squares and tree!

Here's where I decided to go a bit different on my trees, versus other ones I'd seen.  Most other tutorials leave the book pages flat when you begin to put them on the skewer.  I found that took a whole bunch of extra pages so instead I crumpled up each square into a ball, opened it up, and stuck the skewer through the middle of each paper.  You will start by putting your whole pile of large squares on the skewer first (after crumpling each page to get it a fluffy look) After you put a few squares on the skewer you'll want to rotate the squares around some so the corners stick out in different directions.  

As you can see from this picture, all the large squares were crumpled and added to the skewer, then the middle sized squares, and last the tiny ones! 

I love these two trees!  This is why I said you could use a smaller amount of supplies if you wanted because I think these are beautiful just as they are, no paint added.  

 If you prefer a bit more color like I do, simply add some spray ink to your tree (like you see in the mini bottles) after you're all done stacking the squares.  I like to buy my spray ink at a local crafting warehouse called Canvas Corps, located on Old Missouri Road for my local peeps.  I've found spray ink there for $1! Crazy cheap. 

And that's it! You're done! 

This project would be so good to do with kids or girlfriends.  You could also make some teeny tiny trees to give out to friends! 

I plan on making a whole forest of these to decorate with for winter.  

How do you decorate?  Is it enjoyable for you? 

We have TWO birthdays combined with the two major holidays coming up so lots and lots of homespun happiness is happening around here!

I love it. :)