Popsicle Stick Christmas Tree Ornaments
The other day I decided I was going to clean up my craft supplies. You see I have a whole bunch of stuff in my actual craft room/office and then I have a bunch of stuff in the garage that I still haven’t unpacked, and then there is stuff in big tubs in my guest room that needs to go somewhere and, oh, there is a huge 4 or 5 foot wide and tall filing cabinet in Rob’s studio that I need to sift through. Ugh.
I started by buying even more tubs and sorting things out and then I kind of stopped. But not before I found a whole freaking ton of popsicle sticks! Now, what is a girl to do with all of these things? I decided to start making Christmas tree ornament crafts. I made simple little triangle Christmas trees covered in glitter and today I’m making something very similar to these big, wooden blanks I saw at the craft store.
Popsicle Stick Christmas Tree Ornaments
I also saw the niftiest tubes of washi tape at Michael’s and it was on sale! And then so was this mini tinsel and these sweet little foam stars! But then I had a 50% off coupon burning a hole in my pocket so I grabbed some matchy matchy pom poms to my cart and really did business up. Did I mention I already have too many craft supplies? 🙂 Ah, well.
recommended: Pine Cone Christmas Ornaments
Items Needed for Popsicle Stick Christmas Tree Ornaments
- Jumbo popsicle sticks
- Strong scissors
- Hot glue (or other glue)
- Washi tape
- Mini tree decorations
- Tiny white ribbon
(or other glue)
How to Make Popsicle Stick Christmas Tree Ornaments
First thing’s first, if you want your trees to all to be the same size and shape cut a template out of a piece of card stock or other kinds of thick-ish paper. To get a perfectly symmetrical shape to fold a piece of paper in half, making sure the edge of the paper matches up perfectly. Draw an angle on the folded paper and cut through both sides at once. It might take some experimentation to figure out the size you want. Just be sure that the bottom of your tree is no wider than a single popsicle stick.
Lay a handful of popsicle sticks onto your template and space them out evenly. Trace where each piece goes and number each section if you wish.
Using the template as a guide trace the shape of each section onto popsicle sticks to be cut out. You can number each section as you go, if you wish. You can tell easily which one goes where in the grand scheme of things, I actually numbered mine to be sure I got one of each tier instead of, say, 2 #3 pieces.
Grab your super strong scissors (I’m actually using metal nippers) to cut along each angled line. Now you might want to practice because the wood will split on one side. I’m right-handed and as I cut the right side of each cut splintered. As such I make sure to cut the finished edge for each piece on the left side of my nippers. This way the wood that breaks up is scrap, anyway.
recommended: Hand Painted Mini Canvas Christmas Ornaments
Piece your tree together on a full popsicle stick and make sure you’re happy with the shape.
Decorate your tree tiers with washi tape however you please. Either fold over the edges of the tape onto the backside or trim the tape up with scissors.
Tag each piece with hot glue to permanently set the shape. I’d suggest working from top to bottom.
recommended: Gum Drop Christmas Ornaments
If working with children you can always use School glue, it will just take longer to set up.
Use whatever you have to decorate each tree if you wish. You can use as much or as little as you’d like.
As you can tell, I went for super gaudy and I love it.
After my first, I decided that I would prefer each tier to be the same tape making the pompoms and tinsel fit a bit better in the all-around design. Ah, it’s perfect!
Finish each ornament with a ribbon to hang. I would advise using hot glue, to help the littles if needed, for this step. To make sure that ribbon is going nowhere you can use a piece of scrap wood to sandwich the ribbon between two pieces of wood as I did here.
If you wish you can also build the trees out of the popsicle sticks and then hand them over to the kiddos to decorate.
And, well, if you’re a thirty-something hanging out with your cat you can make these, too. No littles required 🙂
A crafter since her earliest years, Allison spends a little time every day making something. She crafts, sews, paints, glues things onto other things, and is a firm believer that a life spent creating is a life worth living. Visit Allison’s blog, Dream {a Little} BIGGER.