tp alaska designs
articles.jpg

Alaska Crafter

A blog from the Great North about Craft and Design

Tutorial: News Trees and Snowflake Stars

That's right!  It's time for the yearly holiday crafts creation!! Here are a few links to years past:

holiday wreaths

winter windowflakes and gift card holders from envelopes

holiday wall tree

ornaments and icicles

News Trees are a simple bit of decoration you can do!

Once again, it is time for us at the Capital City Weekly to give a little gift back to the fine folks of Southeast Alaska in the form of some DIY decorations.

In years past we’ve tackled topics such as wreaths, ornaments, coasters, bunting and gift-wrap, so this year it is finally time to get down to the nitty gritty of a holiday crafted tree. Unless you’re reading this story online, you are holding in your hot little hands the key to making a fun holiday tree, or a forest of them for that matter. As an added bonus we’ll also include a pattern for an easy snowflake star to keep your holidays bright and white.

Pattern for a news tree layer

NEWS TREES 

Tools: A CCW, a dowel, tape, a foam base, extra decorating tools (like glitter).

Directions: Place the dowel into your foam base — this will be the tree trunk from which you will build. Cut circles of CCW graduating in size from small to large. You may use a decorative scissors for a fancy edge or create your own wavy edge.

Cut a pie wedge piece out of each circle (see illustration). Starting with the largest circles, bring the two edges of the pie wedge together to create a cone shape. Tape the underside to secure the cone shape. Slide the cone over the dowel trunk and repeat this process placing the larger cones at the bottom and gradually getting smaller.

You now have a news tree. Use dots of glue and glitter to create a snow or ornament effect on your tree. With an entire CCW, you have enough to make a forest of winter wonderland décor.

SNOWFLAKE STARS

Tools: Square paper (you can use the CCW for this project too), scissors, glue or tape.

Directions: With two folds and three cuts you can build some lovely 3D snowflake stars. Take a square piece of paper and fold it in half to create a triangle. Then fold it in half again for a smaller triangle. Now cut along the three lines according to the illustration. Unfold the paper and you will have some triangle-shaped cuts.

click here for the original article in full and completion to snowflake stars . . .