Crafting for Christmas day 2....

Attack of the Christmas Trees!

The room now has 20 glittery snowflakes in white and blue hanging from the ceiling, we did not make these but bought them for $1.00 at Walmart. My first 'grown-up' tree featured dollar store ornaments that were similar to these and truth be told I still have those first ones tucked away in our ornament stash and use them on the tree for filler some years. That first tree was a sad little triangle tree in a pot, in my apartment in Montana. Yes I did go home for the holidays during my Americorps stint but I needed a tree to get me through the season! Heck even in college we had a tree in the dorm (even though one year it was a short lived stolen tree shaped sign from a local market), and my first year roommate always had a pine tree scented yankee candle to really fill us with cheer....

Upon seeing the glittery snowflakes Joe exclaimed "Mommy we have to get these! you can't have a Christmas forest room without snow and it will be too cold to bring in REAL snow, and the heater will melt it anyway!" So in the cart they went. Along with a $3.00 tube of blue and silver big ornaments "to hang in the corners". When we got home Joe declared we needed trees.....

What you need:

Styrofoam cones in various heights

Styrofoam glue or a glue gun

'Eyelash' Yarn or tinsel

The patience of a saint

Step One: Dab a bit of glue onto the base of the cone then wrap the yarn around. It helps if you just twirl the cone around and try not to think "oh man it does not look perfect" if you have a child do this step. You can always go over what the child did later!

Step Two: Dab a bit of glue at top of cone and press end of yarn into to finish.

Step Three: Repeat step two for remaining trees, get creative, combine yarns! Display in your winter wonderland.

Interesting note: these trees are a family according to Joe- the tallest is daddy, the green and silver one is joe, the green one myself and the small silver is Jude. Please not I am shorter than the one representing the 4 yr old because "mommy I am going to grow bigger than you soon."

Total cost: about $20 The Styrofoam cones were REALLY pricey. They ranged from $2.49- $8.00 for the ones we bought. The yarn was Martha Stewart but was on sale buy one get one so only cost $3.00 (and we have leftover) I suggest using tinsel ($1.00 for 15 yds at dollar store) and maybe making cones out of cardboard or poster board. Why I didn't think of this prior to making I don't know, but I will reuse the cones....