Our next Christmas craft this year was a felt Christmas tree that was bigger than my girls.
It’s a similar concept to our Halloween felt board, but much, much bigger.
And more fashionable.
I had actually intended on doing a more traditional-looking felt Christmas tree, kind of like this tree that I saw last year.
But then I came across these amazing felt sheets:
Score!
With these printed felt pieces I could make a delightfully girly Christmas tree instead! :)
Found them at Walmart, of all places. And I bought a yard of dark green felt from their fabric department, for the tree. I thought about getting some dark purple or a paisley patterned piece heavy with lime green (they sell precut pieces like these at Michaels), but I decided to stick with the green. I liked how it looked.
And I was going to cut a star from one of the pieces I had, but then I came across those adorable pink felt star ornaments on sale at Michaels. For forty cents, I couldn’t pass them up. Especially since they matched the felt I already had.
Because I didn’t want to screw up the tree while cutting, I folded my yard of fabric in half, lengthwise, and drew a tree pattern on it with chalk, instead of just cutting it out by hand, like I do most things.
Then I cut out the ornaments. I cut rough squares and then cut circles out of them. I cut a dozen ornaments from the two with zebra stripes, but only six from the other two patterns, to give them some variation of size.
Then I had to decide where to hang it. I tried using tape, even packing tape, but it was kind of heavy, so I didn’t consider the tape sturdy enough.
I tried sticking the felt directly to the stucco wall on the porch, thinking it would stick like felt does to brick, but the stucco was too smooth because of the paint.
I wound up going with Command Strips (pictured above). The picture hanging ones come with a texture similar to Velcro, so, instead of using the 8 pieces as a set of 4 hangers, I stuck the rough side of the strips right on the felt tree. Then I peeled off the sticky backing and stuck it on the wall.
The main reason I used the Strips is because I can adjust the tree. With a gentle pull, the felt comes right off of the rough side of the strips. And, when it’s time to pack up the Christmas decorations, I can gently pull the Strips off the wall. (But always follow the directions – if you do, they won’t harm your wall, but if you don’t, they’ll take the paint right off.)
Although, if you prefer, you could just leave the tree on the floor and let your kids play with it that way. But I think they have more fun with it if it’s hanging up. Like this:
I love the felt for playing. It’s great for both my preschooler and my toddler. They can put the ornaments on the tree, take them off, rearrange them, make patterns, and then do it all over again.
And I love that I found these fancy felt sheets. I was prepared to do the tree in traditional colors, but I love this concept. It’s so easy to change up the colors. Like, you could do a white Christmas tree instead. Or blue. Or green, but with just gold ornaments. Or whatever colors you’ve used to decorate your home for Christmas. What a great way to personalize an interactive toy for your kids!
Have fun with it!
And please share if you’ve made your own! :)
And don’t forget to check out these other Christmas crafts:
Roaming Rosie 