Thursday, November 29, 2012

Simple Trick: Magazine Christmas Trees


Is it okay that I still haven't put up our Christmas tree if I made this one out of an old magazine?

It's actually quite easy to make. In fact, I did it while watching a DVD. :)

I started out with an old Preview mag. A 200-page magazine will make a tree as fat as mine. So pick a thicker magazine if you want a fatter tree (but I read here to not go over 250 pages. Not sure why.).


I folded the upper-right corner of the first page so it meets the inside seam and makes a fat triangle like this...


Then I folded the page again to form a thinner triangle...


Then I flipped the page so the back of the thin triangle page is facing me...


Then made a crease with the bottom flap like so...


Then inserted the flap inside the triangle...


... to make my first Christmas tree page...


I repeated these steps for a couple of pages, then realized there was an easier way to get the excess flap inside the triangle!


I "opened" the thin triangle and folded the flap before "closing" the thin triangle again...


And voila! A new Christmas tree page!


Around halfway through the magazine, this how it looked...


And once all the pages were done, I did the same to the cover pages. But to "seal" the tree, I tucked the flap of the back cover inside the front cover's triangle.

Learned this simple trick from my DIY-expert friend C (who got this idea from the Martha Stewart). C used one of her son's activity books and I think plans to spraypaint it in gold or silver. Pretty, right? 


But if you are like me, who can't reach spraypaint levels, I suggest you pick a magazine with more brightly-colored pages than white ones with text. Or pick a completely white book for a white Christmas tree like this. 


Oh, and one important thing you need to do before you start folding is to break the spine. I didn't do this so my magazine's spine is visible on the backside of my tree. To break the spine, open the magazine out fully, fold it back so the covers touch and crease the spine. Do this at different parts of the magazine. Then... fold away!

Photos are my own, edited via my iPhone's pixlr app, and from here and here.

Click here for incredibly amazing artistry created out of also folding pages of a book. Click here for previous posts from the Simple Trick series.

No comments:

Post a Comment