Valentine’s Day Tree Craft
Last week’s Pinspiration post got me wanting to craft up some fun things for Valentine’s Day. I have always felt inadequate when it comes to decorations for Valentine’s Day, so I decided to do something about it. Originally created as a money tree, this Valentine’s Day Tree Craft is adapted from Then She Made… My mom thought the tree turned out so cute that I made one for her too.
First you will need a variety of scrapbook pages. I didn’t have any red on hand, but had a variety of pinks that I thought would represent the Valentine theme well. You don’t have to have the 12×12 size pages because you will need to cut them down anyway. 12×12 is just what I had on hand. I’m all about finding crafts that you can do with what you already have at home.
To create a base for the tree, use a small terra cotta pot or bucket. I was originally going to pain the pot with red glitter paint, but I didn’t like how it turned out. Then my mom found some cute red fabric at Walmart, so I decided to cover the pots with fabric. This way it really doesn’t matter what your pot or bucket look like.
You will need something to hold the tree in place. I cut a small piece of styrofoam from an inexpensive syrofoam cube I got at Walmart. Just make sure it fits snugly into the pot.
For the trunk I used a small dowel and attached the scrapbook paper to it using gold wire. Any color wire will do. So you don’t waste a bunch of paper with extra folding, I suggest cutting each piece down to be about 2.5″ wide.
Fold each piece of paper accordion style. Make sure that the printed side is displayed when you fold.
Start by wrapping the wire around the dowel one and a half times – toward the bottom. Get it nice and snug and make sure both sides are even in length. Start with your first paper accordion and hold it in front of the dowel, crossing the wire over and around the dowel. You will create a an X over each piece of paper. Bring the wire back around to the front and repeat with the remaining papers. Fold the paper in the middle, making each one smaller than the one before. This is how you get the tiered tree look. I used a total of 7 papers and finished off the top with a heart.
Getting the heart to stay in place can be a bit tricky. Backing the paper heart with cardstock helps as it gives it more stability. I curled the ends of the wire and wrapped it in a way to hold the heart in place.
The back of the tree will look like this.
Wrap your fabric up around your pot and tie with a cute ribbon. Super cute and fun, and the kids were all begging to help me!
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That’s cute, and looks fairly easy to make. I might just have to try this out. Thanks
this is adorable! love crafting with the kiddos last yr we made a thanksgiving tree and everyday we added a leaf per kid on what they were thankful for. it covered an entire wall in the living room!