Saturday, December 7, 2013

Simple Christmas Craft - 3D Cardboard Christmas Trees


I don't know who first came up with the idea of slipping two cardboard trees together to make them stand, but it's a classic for sure.

It's also the sort of craft I really love, because it gives the illusion of a messy and complicated project, without actually being messy or complicated.

So, before I cleaned up the cardboard left over from our cookie craft, I asked the older girls (and a friend who was visiting and needed something to do) to cut out a couple of trees each for the younger children.  There are templates all over the place online - we used one from a freebie math craftivity featured this month at TeachersPayTeachers.com (there are all kinds of great Christmas themed worksheets to be found over there right now - many of them free).

Anyway, once the girls were done with the trees, I cut alternating slits from the bottoms and tops of each pair, midway down...


...so they could be slipped together to make a standing tree - just like with the slip-together playhouse.


Then, I took them apart, for the children to paint green on both sides (the part that seemed messy, but with washable paint, and paper covering the table - really wasn't).


We left them to dry overnight (making them seem complicated), flipping them every once and a while, so the paint wouldn't stick to the paper.


 And, I gave them back to the children, to decorate with stick on jewels (of course any type of sticker would work - or even bits of paper to glue on).


Making for a great seems-like-a-lot-of-work-but-is-really-quite-easy kind of Christmas craft.  Now I just have to dig out our copy Hans Christian Andersen's The Fir Tree, and we'll be all set.


It's great to be a homeschooler.

4 comments:

  1. So, I'm really curious, what paint do you use because you get fairly good coverage when painting on cardboard and I always seem to need 5 layers for it not to be obviously painted cardboard.

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  2. Ticia - We used "Crayola Washable Kids' Paint"

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  3. Sometimes the simplest crafts are really the best. Your trees look very pretty!

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  4. Adorably frugal, as usual!

    (P.S. We received your pack 'o Christmas fun in the mail the other day, and I am every so grateful for your kindness! The Mad Libs will prove especially useful during our holiday travels!)

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