Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree with a Lovely Little Heart on Top

Have you noticed how many shades of pink there are in the scrapbook paper isle? I have. And I just can’t resist them.

I knew I needed to make a small-ish vertical decoration for my kitchen table centerpiece this Valentine’s Day, and rather than choosing just one shade of pink, I chose three shades of pink. Plus red! Cuz this is my project and I call the shots.

And look how cute it turned out:

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

I think I’ve mentioned before that pink is where it’s at for me, but of course you could choose red or purple if you’re not a fan.

And seriously, the curling at the end of each strip of paper? So cute and so reminiscent of the elementary school craft days. Be still my heart.

Here’s a complete list of the tools and supplies I used to make this sweet little tree:

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

The really abbreviated directions are in The Short and Sweet section just below. Following that are the more detailed directions with some helpful tips in the the All the Details section. And later on I’ll break down  the cost for each item and total it up for ya so you know about how much it’ll cost ya to make one for your own table.

 

The Short and Sweet

  1. Cut four colors of cardstock into rectangular strips, about ¼”x3”.
  2. Attach them to a styro-foam cone, from the bottom up.
  3. Curl the ends of each piece with a pen.
  4. Add a little paper heart topper and call it done.

 

All the Details

First thing’s first.

1. Plug in that glue gun. The low setting should do it.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

Start from the ground up.

2. Take your paper that is the color for the bottom of your tree and lay it horizontally.. Cut it into 3 strips, (2) 3”x 11”, (1) 2.5”x11”.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

3. Take the 2.5”x11” strip...

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

4. And make two lines along the top. You want them about 3.5” and 3 ¾” away from the left and right sides. These will be the crease line.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

5. Now fold your paper so that those two lines meet.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

6. Push down on along the top of the strip, but not the bottom. We want to create an angle here. The side of the paper on the outside of the crease should slant upwards.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

7. Do the same with the other two lines on the paper, making sure that side also slants upwards.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

8. If you chose the same size cone as I did, you’ll want to trim about 1 inch off of the right side of the strip.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

9. And now that you see the angles the paper makes, you can crease those fold down to the bottom of the strip.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

10. Now set that cone on the paper so that the bottom of the cone lines up with the bottom of the paper.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

11. Roll each end of the paper up and around the cone. They will stick out the bottom a little.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

12. That’s okay because we’re just gonna trim those off.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

13. So far, so good.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

Prep the strips.

14. Now, take one of the 3”x11” strips…

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

15. And cut it into small trips about ¼” wide. (So they’ll be ¼”x 3”.)

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

16. You’ll want to do the same with the three other colors of paper. So cut the large 3”x11” strips for each color.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

17. And then cut those into ¼”x3” strips.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

Attach the bottom row of strips.

18. Grab a strip and glue it so that it hangs off the bottom of the covered portion of the cone about and inch.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

19. Remember that the red paper I wrapped around the cone is at a bit of an angle so try to keep an eye out for your small strips going on the horizontal plane, don’t follow the red paper on the cone.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

20. When adding each strip, lay it just over the corner/ side of the previous strip.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

21. When you’ve got that whole bottom row on there just grab that pen and gently roll each strip up so that it’s about even with the bottom of the cone. (The same way you did in elementary art class.)

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

22. It should look like this.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

23. The curls don’t have to be perfectly even, just get them to pretty close to the same length.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

24. So when it’s standing, it’ll look like this:

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

Add the next row.

25. Using the bottom color…

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

26. And the second darkest color, alternate the strips as you apply them around the cone. You want space them so that the top of the previously attached strips are at about the half-way point of your new row of strips.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

27. Again, overlap each strip just a bit...

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

28. Until you’ve gone all the way around the cone.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

29. Now curl up the bottoms of that row, too.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

Add the middle rows of strips.

30. Go ahead do the same for the next row, using just the second darkest color.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

31. And another row using the medium-toned, or second lightest color. Line up the strips with the top of the cone.

(Can you believe I forgot to take a picture?! I’m sorry! You can see it coming up in the next few pictures, though...)

Add the top row of strips.

32. Using the lightest strips, fold the paper over the top of the cone.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

33. I found that I needed to cut about ½” off of these strips to get the spacing correct. If you use a different size cone you may want too trim more or less off.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

34. You want the strip to come down over the side like so.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

35. You will need to overlap theses top strips more than you did for the other rows.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

36. They stick out, though, so we’ve gotta fix that.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

37. Before we do, curl the ends up.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

38. Now grab some of that double sided tape. (I love Crafty Power Tape. It holds so well and is easy to apply off the roll.)

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

39. Attach it to the top of the cone...

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

40. And push down to secure.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

41. Much better.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

42. It’s starting to look s pretty!

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

Finish it off.

43. Punch out 5 mini hearts.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

44. Use that double-sided tape to attach them like this:

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

45. Adding one at a time…

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

46. Until 4 of them are attached, forming a sort of a box.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

47. Now use the hot glue to stand that last heart up, right in the center of that box of hearts.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

48. And glue the wold thing to the top of the covered cone.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

You can probably see why we’ve used tape in some places by now...the glue would just add too much bulk in these places.

Set it next to a jar of festive candy, maybe on a pretty tray, and enjoy it!.

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

 

As much as I love looking at it, I love thinking about how cheap it was to make even more:

Decorative Valentine's Day Ombré Paper Tree Tutorial -MIY with Melissa

I actually had all of the supplies in my craft room already except for the hear punch, so this project cost me less than $7!

Well, if you have a a paper heart craft I would love to see it! Tag me on your Instagram post or leave a pic below in the comments!

 

Happy cutting and glueing, friends. And whatever you make, make it yours!

 

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