How to Create a Stunning Upcycled Book Christmas Tree - Day 8 of the 12 Days of Christmas
Hello Crafty People! Becky Conley here, and I'm thrilled to bring you another delightful holiday creation. As we continue counting down the festive days leading up to Christmas, I'm excited to share my latest project for the 8th Day of Christmas: a charming rustic Christmas tree crafted from upcycled book pages. This fun and eco-friendly project not only adds a unique touch to your holiday decor but also pays homage to the stories and adventures contained within those old pages. To elevate this crafty endeavor, I incorporated a vintage plate as the base and brought it all to life with enchanting using Perfect Paints. So gather your supplies, unleash your creativity, and let’s dive into this whimsical craft that’s sure to spark joy and nostalgia this holiday season!
SUPPLIES:
Perfect Paints Polishing Plaster #1076 Frosted Pine
Perfect Paints Shimmering Matte Acrylics #1004 Spring Green and #1035 Honey Gold
49 and Market Christmas Spectacular General Laser Cut Elements
OTHER SUPPLIES:
Hard-cover book with pages approximately 6" x 9", 3/8" Wood dowel, 5 wood slices 3"-3 1/2", 3-d star - 1 1/2", Vintage dinner plate 10" - 12", battery operated fairy lights, miscellaneous adhesives and tools.
INSTRUCTIONS:
You'll need 100 pages. Remove the cover from the book, leaving the spine intact. Separate 100 pages, and using a carpenters knife and scissors, cut the spine. You'll want to keep the glue and mesh of the spine on your 100 pages.
Fold the pages, all in the same direction. Bring the first fold down from the top right corner to the center. The second fold from right to center. Lastly, fold the triangle at the bottom up.
Folding your book pages to create a Christmas Tree
Use clamps to hold folded pages while you continue to fold. Don't over fill the clamps, this might cause wrinkling or other damage.
Rub the folded pages with Perfect Paints Polishing Plaster #1076 Frosted Pine sporadically on both sides. To avoid the pages sticking together, I did all the same sides, waited for them to dry, then did all the opposite sides. If you work slowly and rub gently, it's fairly dry before you move on to the next page.
Stack the 5 wood slices with adhesive . I used a combination of hot glue and E-6000, avoiding the center. Drill a hole down through the center of the stacked slices of the size to fit your dowel. You'll only need to drill down about and inch or so, not all the way through.
Position the dowel onto the spine of the pages and check the height when inserted into the wood slices base, it may need to be shortened.
Glue the dowel to the spine of the pages, pushing it in tight and making sure it's straight from top to bottom. Use a lot of hot glue, so it's oozing a little around the sides of the dowel. When you have the dowel positioned correctly, squeeze the pages in together, to reduce the gap.
Glue the dowel into the drilled hole in the wood slices base.
Glue the battery pack in between two pages with the on/off switch to the front, but pushing it to the back. Glue a sprig of evergreen over the battery pack from the gorgeous 49 and Market Christmas Spectacular General Laser Cut Elements.
Bring the lights up to the top and pushing them close to the center as you get nearer the top, so you can go over the top and down in between other pages. I alternated between 4 and 5 pages in between the lights.
At the bottom of the pages, bend the wire to create 1" widths, so as to not crowd the pages. Push the cord back so its out of sight.
If some of the triangle folds won't stay up right, glue them with mini pine cones from the 49 and Market Christmas Spectacular General Laser Cut Elements.
Using a wide brush, paint highlights on the tips of the pages with Perfect Paints Shimmering Matte Acrylics #1004 Spring Green
I had remnants of a silver star garland used on a Book Stack that I cut one star from and painted it with Perfect Paints Shimmering Matte Acrylics #1035 Honey Gold. Hot glue the star to the top of the tree.
Glue the base of the tree to the center of the vintage plate with hot glue and E-6000. Although, the tree stood up by itself without the plate.
You may need to fluff, separate or even glue some pages at the center to adjust spacing.
Thanks for stopping by the blog, I hope you are inspired to create something fabulous today!
Live creatively,
Becky Conley
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