Our Kraft Paper Christmas Tree
As you probably know, paper is our signature crafting material. We love creating gorgeous paper flowers, but this Christmas we decided to take on a new holiday botanical – a full-sized paper Christmas tree! Just like our copper Christmas tree, we made this using only materials that we picked up from our local Orchard Supply Hardware, and you can learn more about the details of our collaborations with them here.
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We started our paper Christmas tree by building the base. For this we used 1/2-inch aluminum tubing. At this step you can personalize your tree to the size that you want. Ours is about 6 feet tall, and you can see in the downloadable instructions below that we cut three aluminum rings (using a tube cutter) at increasingly larger sizes to form the cone shape. We attached the aluminum rings with cotton clothesline and fastened an LED clamp light at the top.
After building the base of the paper Christmas tree, you can move onto cutting the paper leaves. Use a roll of builders paper, also known as kraft paper in the world of DIY. The roll is 35 inches high, and we cut rectangles that were 22 inches wide. We then cut this rectangle corner-to-corner to make two triangles. From here cut strips between 1.5 and 2 inches wide (without cutting all the way through!) to create the fringed look. It really is easy! Start gluing your paper pieces to the clothesline and you will start seeing your paper Christmas tree come to life.
The last finishing touches include punching holes into the paper strips and wrapping string lights around the clothesline. The lights will start shining through the punched holes in a beautiful way! Find the full tutorial in the download below, and be sure to check out our copper Christmas tree for another gorgeous unconventional tree idea. Come back tomorrow to see our macrame and poplar wood tree, and browse all of our Christmas DIY projects here. Take a look at our membership options to start crafting other projects on the site, and share your unconventional Christmas tree projects with us on Instagram using #DIYDreamingWithLia and #MyOSHProject. Always feel free to write in with project suggestions for us – we love getting you in on the creative process! See you soon ~ Lia and the Team
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11 Comments
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Evangelne
December 1, 2022 at 11:51am
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Lia
December 1, 2022 at 3:30pm
@Evangelne
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Caroline
December 11, 2021 at 6:36am
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Lia
December 13, 2021 at 10:23am
@Caroline
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Marlene
December 4, 2019 at 1:51pm
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Lia
December 4, 2019 at 3:04pm
@Marlene
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Marlene
December 4, 2019 at 10:30pm
@Lia
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Beverly
December 20, 2016 at 10:03am
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Lia
December 21, 2016 at 8:00am
@Beverly
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nancy
December 12, 2016 at 6:46am
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Lia
December 12, 2016 at 7:27am
@nancy
Leave a CommentWhere do the lights come in to play?
Once you have finished your tree, you can add mini lights.
Hi Lia! These are beautiful! What can we do for the paper tree if the paper is not as curly as yours? It’s a bit more limp off the roll for some reason. Merry Christmas!
I would use the edge of the table and with two people slide it along to get some extra curl, like a giant curling tool.
Dear Lia,
I am making the Carpenters Xmas tree and it is all constructed, I am cutting the paper now, as I look at the instructions and then the tree, I question as to whether you might want to start at the BOTTOM rather than the top, it would seem to be difficult applying from the top down, can you please explain why? I just cant see starting at the top, …..Tthank you? I’ll bewaiting for your answer……
Hi Marlene,
You can begin gluing your paper from the bottom or top, it is personal preference and the tree will turn out beautiful either way! 🙂
Thanks Lia, can’t wait to get through all the paper cutting!!!
Absolutely beautiful and so modern yet classic at the same time. So glad I joined this site today. Just received a Cricut for Christmas but this site offers so much more because I love to do all kinds of crafts.
Thank you so much!!!!
Beverly
Welcome, Beverly! I’m so happy you found us.
I was looking for the instructions for the star tree topper, but couldn’t find them’ Also, I wanted the instructions for the paper cone trees.
Hi Nancy, there’s a video tutorial for the star tree topper here: https://liagriffith.com/joann-handcrafted-holiday-kits/. There are two options for the cone trees– one is paper (https://liagriffith.com/diy-gold-ombretrees-for-your-holiday-decorations/), and the other is crepe paper (https://liagriffith.com/crepe-christmas-tree-cones/)
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