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:
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:
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
- Cut four colors of cardstock into rectangular strips, about ¼”x3”.
- Attach them to a styro-foam cone, from the bottom up.
- Curl the ends of each piece with a pen.
- 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.
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”.
3. Take the 2.5”x11” strip...
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.
5. Now fold your paper so that those two lines meet.
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.
7. Do the same with the other two lines on the paper, making sure that side also slants upwards.
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.
9. And now that you see the angles the paper makes, you can crease those fold down to the bottom of the strip.
10. Now set that cone on the paper so that the bottom of the cone lines up with the bottom of the paper.
11. Roll each end of the paper up and around the cone. They will stick out the bottom a little.
12. That’s okay because we’re just gonna trim those off.
13. So far, so good.
Prep the strips.
14. Now, take one of the 3”x11” strips…
15. And cut it into small trips about ¼” wide. (So they’ll be ¼”x 3”.)
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.
17. And then cut those into ¼”x3” strips.
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.
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.
20. When adding each strip, lay it just over the corner/ side of the previous strip.
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.)
22. It should look like this.
23. The curls don’t have to be perfectly even, just get them to pretty close to the same length.
24. So when it’s standing, it’ll look like this:
Add the next row.
25. Using the bottom color…
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.
27. Again, overlap each strip just a bit...
28. Until you’ve gone all the way around the cone.
29. Now curl up the bottoms of that row, too.
Add the middle rows of strips.
30. Go ahead do the same for the next row, using just the second darkest color.
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.
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.
34. You want the strip to come down over the side like so.
35. You will need to overlap theses top strips more than you did for the other rows.
36. They stick out, though, so we’ve gotta fix that.
37. Before we do, curl the ends up.
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.)
39. Attach it to the top of the cone...
40. And push down to secure.
41. Much better.
42. It’s starting to look s pretty!
Finish it off.
43. Punch out 5 mini hearts.
44. Use that double-sided tape to attach them like this:
45. Adding one at a time…
46. Until 4 of them are attached, forming a sort of a box.
47. Now use the hot glue to stand that last heart up, right in the center of that box of hearts.
48. And glue the wold thing to the top of the covered cone.
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!.
As much as I love looking at it, I love thinking about how cheap it was to make even more:
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!
Did you like this tutorial? Then I bet you'll like these, too. Have a look: