In my quest to make more recycled crafts for the holidays, I was inspired by these on Pinterest when I put this tree together. It's made of recycled newspaper tubes woven into stars made in graduated sizes and glued together.
The tree is really easy to do once you make lots of newspaper tubes and master weaving the tubes into a star. But first, let's briefly go over making newspaper tubes.
1. Fold a newspaper section in half and fold again so you have four sections.
2. Cut out the four folded sections and open length-wise.
3. Take a thin skewer stick and place on the corner edge of paper at an angle, as pictured.
4. Place the end tip of the paper over the skewer and start rolling the paper with fingers pressed down on the table first. Once you've started rolling the paper, lift up the tube so your left fingers are controlling the roll while your right hand is rolling the stick and tightening the tube.
5. Just before finishing the roll, add glue to the corner end tip and continue rolling until reaching the end to seal.
You will need to make lots of tubes for the eleven stars that make up this tree.
The largest star (base) is 9 1/2 inches wide and took about 9 tubes to make.
Here are the measurements (tip to tip) for the eleven stars that I made:
1 star - 9 1/2"
2 - 9"
3 - 8 1/2"
4 - 8"
5 - 7 1/2"
6 - 7"
7 - 6 1/2"
8 - 6"
9 - 5 1/2"
plus
2 small stars for the top - 3"
Sorry, I didn't count all the tubes used to make each star. I got too involved in weaving each one!
To begin, take a tube and make about an inch fold on one end. Next, with a ruler, measure the tube the size of star you want to make. So, for the first star, measure 9 1/2" with a ruler and fold the tube into 9 1/2 inch lengths. I forgot to take pictures of measuring at first because I had to figure it out and wasn't comfortable with making the stars. The tutorial on Pinterest was in pictures and it took me a couple of times making one to get the hang of it. In this picture, I'm measuring 7 inch folds for a seven inch star.
Make three "V" folds, measuring the same length, as pictured.
*Your tube may not be long enough for folding this way so you'll need to add more tubes by putting a little glue on one end and inserting it into the other tube to make it continuous.
Next, open the folds and shape the folded portions into a star. The one inch bended tip is glued to the last end of the tube at the fold and clamped until dry.
To start weaving the star, turn the star upright where the end was glued and clamped. Take the tube around the point and down, parallel to the star tube (1) to the next star point (2) and around (3) and over to the next point(4) and around and over to the next point (5). I hope this isn't too confusing.
Continue following the original pattern with the tubes running parallel so you would see rows of two, then three, then four, etc., beside each other.
*Add additional tubes by putting a little glue on one end and inserting tube into new tube end.
Continue wrapping until reaching the center, making sure all points look about the same. You should see a weaving pattern on each star point or leg. To finish off the end tube, wrap it to the back, adding glue and . . .
tuck the end under an inside tube. You can cut off the excess tube after tucking and gluing it under one or more of the tubes on the underside.
Finished back of tube:
Front of finished star:
All of the finished stars:
Spray painted with satin white multi-purpose paint and sprayed with a gloss sealant.
Sprinkle on white glitter while paint is still wet.
Once dry, start hot gluing stars on top of each other.
Hot glue the two small 3 inch stars together . . .
and glue the bottom on top of the center of the stars.
For a snowy effect, mix glitter, decorative filler and mod podge together and add the mixture to the tips of the stars and let dry.
I love how the tree turned out!
It's so adorable and can be used as a snowy centerpiece, not just for the holidays, but for the entire winter season!
What a fun recycled/upcycled craft!
Take a little time to
enjoy
and
Happy Holiday Crafting!
