I'm a magazine hoader. Anyone who has helped me move will tell you that's an understatement, much to their chagrin. I have boxes and boxes (and boxes) of old magazines that I just can't bear to part with. Because what if I need a recipe that I don't know exists from the October 2008 issue of my favorite food publication? Under conditions like that, it's completely reasonable to keep years worth of magazines tucked away.
Now, were I inclined to actually be reasonable, this would have been a perfect opportunity to use up all of those old magazines and turn them into Christmas trees. Even though I would have needed to move into a mansion/NFL stadium to house all of them. However, since I'm fairly unreasonable when it comes to magazines, I used extra copies of one large magazine (Susquehanna Style!) and one small magazine to craft the large and small trees, respectively.
The holidays tend to take a toll on time and resources, but this craft won't use up either. The materials are inexpensive (or completely free, depending on what you have on hand) and it's a quick project start-to-finish. Also, there's something theraputic about rolling all of those paper cones, and that's always a welcome effect during this time of year.
Materials:
- Old magazines in various sizes (if you only have one size just cut or fold the large pages in half to make small pages)
- Circular plastic container and/or lid (like a whipped topping container)
- Tape
- Hot glue gun
- Spray paint
- Decorations, as desired
- Sturdy branch or dowel to use as the trunk
- Clear glass vase
- Stones, marble, or any small weights
- Cottonballs
Instructions:
1. Tear out 30-45 pages from an old magazine, large pages for a large tree, small pages (or large pages cut or folded in half) for a small tree.
2. There is no "right" way to roll pages into cones. However, I found that this method was effective: while holiding the page at the top right with your right hand and the bottom right with your left hand, fold the bottom right corner up to the top left corner and curl it in. The tip of the cone will take shape up by your right hand, and you can control the width of the cone by how tightly you curl it inside. I used tape to secure the corner at the tip of the cone.
Here's a visual, in case none of that made sense.
3. Once you have a good number of cones rolled, set them aside and prepare the trunk. Placing an old container mid-way up the trunk before starting to hot glue the cones to the trunk will help the bottom layers fan out and form a nice tree shape. I did this by cutting an x-shape into the middle of an old whipped topping container, putting the branch through the x and securing it to the middle with hot glue.
Here's a visual, in case that didn't make sense, either.
4. As shown above, attach the paper cones in layers using a hot glue gun, tapering them gradually until you have a tree shape. Life will be a lot easier if this is a two-person job: one person to hold the trunk and one person to attach the cones.
5. Lightly spray paint the tree. Having some of the magazine print showing through makes for a nice vintage effect. Once the tree has dried, decorate as desired. I used ribbons and bows and strung them about a little haphazardly to encourage a shabby-chic look. I also used a glass vase filled with stones at the bottom (to keep it stable) and filled the rest with cottonballs for a whimsical, snowy look.
6. Display inside on mantle, fireplace, entryway or wherever you need a little extra holiday cheer.
