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By Meredith Ethington

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craft Family I'm a Mormon Mormon Motherhood Parenting snow

Magazine Christmas Tree Tutorial (or an activity to keep your kids quiet)

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Wow. It’s amazing how just a little bit of sunshine and manual labor can make you so much happier. Here’s my backyard this morning! We did some shoveling too that has already made my arm sore.

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So, in my true spirit of this blog, I’m going to share a very simple craft that you can do with your kids. Just kidding, I rarely share crafts. And, if I’m sharing it, you know two things….It’s easy, It’s cheap, and it is either super fast, or will keep the kids entertained for super long. OK, that’s three. Because that’s the only way I do crafts.

I saw this idea floating around about making Christmas trees out of magazines. WHAT? It sounded a little bit like Origami at first, which scared me a little bit. Not gonna lie. (Who has time or patience to make paper birds?) But, the truth was, it was more like folding a paper airplane. Much more my style.

Magazine Christmas Trees! A simple craft to do with the kids. Turn old magazines into Christmas trees.

I liked this idea I found on the inter webs (here’s the link) because I already had old magazines laying around (HELLO! Can you say the Ensign and Friends galore?) OK. Only Mormons will get that one. But, let’s just say we have lots of old magazines laying around. So, it cost me zero money for this project, and as an added bonus, cost me about zero patience. Hooray!!

First: Tear off front and back cover of magazine and break binding if it’s a really big magazine (like Vogue which would be much more cool for this tutorial)

Second: Fold first page like so:

©first fold for magazine christmas tree

Third: Grab the far side of that same page and pull it over again like this. Make sure to make good creases!

©2nd fold for Magazine Christmas Tree

 

Fourth: Now that it looks like a tie, fold the bottom part of the “tie” up to make it even with the bottom of the magazine pages…like this:
©3rd step for magazine christmas tree

Now, do this OVER and over and over again until you fold every page the same way.  My four year old finally got it down in about 10 pages of me helping him, and the 7 year old totally got it after like 2. When you fold every page like the above instructions, you get this:

©magazine christmas trees 1

The magazine Christmas Tree can stand up!!

Easy Magazine Christmas Trees. Fun craft to keep little hands busy!

And, I had some leftover spray paint from my Art Wall Project, so we decided to spray paint ours. Makes them fun, huh?

painted magazine trees

We were going to glue on decorations, but it was dinner time. Maybe another day.

I will say that the Ensign was a little on the small side, kind of like OK magazine or US. I don’t read those. Swear. But, if that’s your magazine of choice, then you might get a tree that looks flat on one side. I fixed that problem by just glueing the flat parts of two magazines together to make one really full looking tree. The green one is two magazines glued together. 🙂

Now, don’t say I never taught you anything! Hope your day is happy and bright like mine!

*************

And, don’t forget to link up this week to my Manic Mondays fun.


13 Comments

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Comments

  1. superSAHD says

    December 5, 2013 at 12:36 am

    Cool craft.

    But holy cow, that SLC snow looks FANTASTIC. Greatest snow on earth. That view looks like sugar house, about 19th and 19th. Just a hop away from cottonwood, amiright?

    Reply
    • Meredith says

      December 5, 2013 at 8:09 am

      Are you trying to stalk me? 😉
      No, I live more in the canyon rim/millcreek area. Good guess though!!

      Reply
  2. The Waiting says

    December 5, 2013 at 5:13 pm

    I LOVE this. When I actually have some time over the holidays I am going to kick my family out of the house so I can craft in peace. It has been so long since I made something other than food.

    Reply
  3. Kristin says

    December 5, 2013 at 7:40 pm

    This is such a good idea. My kiddos are only 1 and 2 so this may be a little too complicate, it I love how simple it is for older kids to create a neat-looking project!

    Visiting from SITS!

    Reply
    • Meredith says

      December 5, 2013 at 8:20 pm

      Yeah, might be too much for that age, but in a couple of years you could go for it! 🙂

      Reply
  4. Kristiina says

    December 5, 2013 at 9:34 pm

    Great idea! They turned out awesome.

    Reply
    • Meredith says

      December 5, 2013 at 9:58 pm

      Thanks! They were mediocre at best, but thanks for being nice! 🙂 They kept the kids entertained though. And we spent time together. That’s the important part!!

      Reply
  5. Stephanie @ Mommy, for Real. says

    December 6, 2013 at 2:48 pm

    OK, that is actually pretty awesome. From a total non-crafter. Two more interesting (or not) things to note. 1. It is totally snowy and freezing where I am and 2. I too had to factor in my unfortunate case of PMS when writing/posting/doing anything this week. Cheers to you!

    Reply
    • Meredith says

      December 6, 2013 at 2:50 pm

      Sounds like you need to do this craft then! 😉

      Reply
  6. Kerry says

    December 8, 2013 at 8:18 pm

    Those are cute…I may have to give those a try.

    Reply
    • Meredith says

      December 8, 2013 at 8:52 pm

      They are SO easy, or I wouldn’t share them. 🙂

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Teacher Gift Idea: Personalized Sharpie Mugs | Perfection Pending says:
    December 19, 2013 at 9:57 am

    […] in my mediocre crafts fashion, I thought I’d share with you my simple gift idea for a teacher or neighbor or even a […]

    Reply
  2. Reality VS. Pinterest-A Holiday Home Tour of Sorts - Perfection Pending says:
    November 11, 2015 at 10:01 pm

    […] and purchase items for crafts!! Ahem, I don’t do crafts, remember? Except for this time. And, this one. But, still, everyone makes it all look so simple! Sure, I can make a reindeer statue out of […]

    Reply

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Welcome! I’m Meredith.

Mom. Writer. Diet Coke connoisseur. Born and raised Texan. Lover of real talk and laughter with a hint of sarcasm mixed in.

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Meredith Ethington

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Mom • Author • Mental Health Therapist In Training
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NEW ---> "When there are problems in these big kid NEW ---> "When there are problems in these big kid years, it’s no longer really acceptable to call a friend and air the annoyances of the situation. At least not the specifics.

Sure, you can commiserate with a fellow parent about teenagers being the worst.

But, to be honest - they’re not the worst. They’re kind of amazing. But their problems make me tired to my core." 

Read the latest on my substack. I promise you'll relate. ❤️
So sweet. ❤️ Follow me @perfectpending and bet So sweet. ❤️
Follow me @perfectpending and better yet buy my book or subscribe to my substack to support me.
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WHAT IF THIS IS THE HAPPIEST I’LL EVER BE AND I WHAT IF THIS IS THE HAPPIEST I’LL EVER BE AND I MISS IT? What if I miss the best time of my life. What if it’s right this second?
What if it’s right now while I’m in finals week of grad school, and have a kid that’s sick? 
I already miss so much. The gummy smiles of babes without any teeth. The squeaky voices of 2 year olds. The babbling of a baby that’s just trying so hard to say mama. The grammar mistakes my kids make when they’re talking that I don’t have the heart to correct because I love it too much. 

I miss a lot about those younger years that have already slipped away. My youngest is sick, much like in this picture, but he is too big to snuggle in my arms now when he’s running a fever. 

Today I had the thought, what if this is it? What if this IS the happiest I’ll ever be?
For a moment, I lingered in that thought as I stood over my sink and did the dishes. I started to cry.
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The state of our economy. Social media. People being unemployed. People being racist and homophobic. The debate over politics. People judging people. ALLLLLL of it. 

Everything is crap right now. We joke about it a lot. We have to in order to survive. 

It’s the one millionth day of January but Spring feels so far away. 

I’m over these four damn walls that we call home. 

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But, my guess is you’re reading this right now and realizing you’re over it too. Whatever “it” is in your life.

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