I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked how to make this tree!  In all honesty, when I made this, I never had a plan…it just evolved.

I had never made a tree before, so I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.  I ended up with 5 trees of different sizes by the end of the day and let me tell you, it took me ALL day to make them!  I was so sick of looking at those trees by the time it was all said and done!  But, you have to admit…they are pretty spectacular!

This was a small one on one end of my classroom…

Notice my Creative Teaching Press cupcakes?  Did I happen to tell you that I love Creative Teaching Press?!?

Here is a smaller tree on the OTHER side of the room…

So, when you walked in, your eyes automatically went to the large tree in the center, but you couldn’t help but notice the cute trees on each end to balance it out.

Directly across the room was another tree.  I had this going up the cinderblock wall and stapled the branches into the bulletin boards above.

You can see it from this angle…

Lastly, if you look to the left of this picture, I have a small tree that I made in my showcase.  How cute is that?!?

I’ve decided to do a quick tutorial to show YOU how to make one of these showstopper trees in YOUR classroom!

THE TREE

I started with brown bulletin board paper and cut it about 12 inches wide.  Now, depending on the size of the tree, you might want to make this bigger.  My large focal point tree was about 24 inches wide.

Next, I accordian folded the tree.  The fold was about 2-3 inches.  As you can see, it was quick and it wasn’t perfect.  You don’t want it to be perfect – your tree won’t have character if you start measuring everything out!

First, I need to tell you that you will see parts of my Luau room in the background!  I love it so much, I didn’t want to take it down yet!!!

Anyways, pull apart your trunk, keeping some of the folds in place.  Staple randomly.  Again, you don’t want this to look perfect!

Your trunk is now in place and ready for branches!

Next, cut a thin strip of your bulletin board paper.  Start at the bottom and go up.  Notice how the bottom is much wider than the top?  Again, notice that it isn’t perfect?  Just cut and don’t put much thought into it!

Now, I lightly scrunched the branch. Don’t scrunch too hard!

Inside one of the creases, I stapled the branch into the top of the trunk.

At the other end of the branch, I bent a large paperclip and punched it through the paper.  I created a hook  with the paper clip to attach it to my ceiling.

My school ceiling had little tiny holes in the ceiling panels, so I could fit the end of the paper clip right into the holes and it never fell down.

For my ceiling, I used a Command hook and attached it to the ceiling.  I stretched out the branch as far as it could go.

I cut another strip of brown paper, just like the first one, lightly scrunched and stapled it into the top of the tree trunk.

I’ve attached the second tree branch to the ceiling with the paperclip.  Looks like he wants to give you a big hug!

Repeat the cutting of the paper, scrunching and stapling into the trunk.

Now, you have your base!  Continue adding branches until you get the fullness that you desire.  My big tree had 9 – 10 limbs. 

Continue stapling and layering into the same spot on the tree trunk.  You will add some leaves to that spot to hide all of the paper build up at the end.

Last, take those same branches and staple them into the bulletin board or hot glue on the wall behind the tree.  It would look funny to have a bunch of branches without filling in the back.  Bend any way you would like as you staple the branches into the board.

You will create the fullness by adding bunches of leaves!

I used wrapping paper from Party City to give my tree a whimsical look.

Creative Teaching Press also has some cute fall leaves – these adorable leaves would be gorgeous on your tree!

CTP #6436

Ta Da!!!  You are done!!!

Happy Decorating!

~Melanie~