Burlap and Buttons Christmas Tree Tutorial

Hey Friends!

It’s been crazy-busy around here lately with Christmas in general and the Holiday Home Tour I was part of last week in particular. I love Christmastime, but with all the work I had to put in to prepare for it this year, both blogwise and otherwise, I’ll sure be glad when 2015 is here so I can start off the new year with a bunch of new projects that aren’t holiday themed!

Here is a simple tutorial for making burlap and buttons Christmas trees. It uses the foam cones you can buy at any craft or floral supply store, and it’s a great way to use up any burlap scraps and any extra buttons you may have around the house.

Here’s what you need:

• 3 foam floral cones in 6″, 9″, and 12″
• 10 feet of 4″ wide burlap
• a few feet of 4mm decorative bead strand in one or more colors
• a lot of buttons!
• scissors
• hot glue gun
• glue sticks

Here’s what you do:

1. Starting from the base of the cone, wrap a piece of burlap around the bottom of the cone with half the width hanging off the bottom and glue into place. Trim off the overlap flush to the bottom of the cone. 2. Continue doing the same as you work up the cone, overlapping half of the preceding round with half of the current round so none of the cone foam shows through. Keep the seams together forming a line up the back of the cone. Pull off a couple of strands of burlap off the bottom of each round width-wise to give the tree a ruffled look. 3. Right before gluing the last round, glue a small piece of burlap on the flat spot on top of the cone. Trim it flush to the sides of the cone.4. Wrap the final round on top of the cone, trim to a couple strands above the cone, then pull the strands out to give the top of the cone a ruffled look.5. Starting at the top of the cone, glue bead strands on the seam side of the cone.6. Wrap bead strand around the cone working downward, securing as needed with glue. Cut bead strand at the bottom and secure with glue.7. Glue on buttons. You’re all done!Aren’t they pretty? My kitty seems to think so! 🙂Let me know what you think, and enjoy this fun and easy holiday craft!

Michelle