DIY: Christmas Tree from Repurposed Book

Welcome to our final Workshop Wednesday!

Wow! It is hard to believe this is our last Workshop Wednesday for our Christmas in July blog hop. The year is half way over but at least we have a jump start on our Christmas decorations, wrapping, and gift ideas and I hope you have been inspired to get an early start as well.

If you are visiting from The Scrap Shoppe welcome and thank you for stopping by my blog!

Today I want to share with you something I have wanted to make and finally completed - a repurposed book turned into a vintage Christmas tree. I will share the steps to make one for yourself or to give as a gift.

First you will need a book that you do not plan to read again or I purchased mine from Goodwill (it has approximately 300 pages). You need to remove both the front and back cover before you start folding your pages. Each page requires four different folds.

1.   Fold the top right corner to meet the inside binding of the book

2.   Starting at the top of the previous fold make a diagonal fold to meet the inside binding

3.   This fold is made on the back of the previous folds as you want to fold the bottom triangle to make a point for what will be the outside corner of the tree and a straight line across the bottom

4.   Once you have completed your fold in step 3 tuck the folded triangle into the fold so you have a straight bottom fold as this will allow the tree to sit flat

 

As you work closer to the end it will get harder to fold the pages into the binder which will make some pages stand out more than others will but I think it gives the tree depth. As you are folding you can use a large binder clip to hold the pages you have completed. Once all pages were folded, I glued the first and last page together to prevent them from separating and this is what your tree should look like.

Now you can get your CreativiT going as you decorate your tree. I think the book has a vintage feel to it so I decided to use lace to trim my tree. I applied glue to the lace in small sections and worked around the tree gluing it to the edges.

I had a hard time deciding how to top my tree as I wanted to add some color while keeping it vintage. I used a lace I had on hand and ran a burgundy ribbon through the holes in the lace and made a simple bow. Of course I wanted a vintage brooch to go in the center of the bow which I did not have on hand – time to get crafty so I made my own.

I gathered up some items I had on hand. I used a chipboard tag that I pressed into black ink to give it a “metal” look. I then used a metal charm frame and put rhinestones in the center. For the edges I used burgundy rhinestones in the four corners and lined the outside with pearls – voila what do you think?

Here is a close up of the top of the tree and I think it will compliment the angel my oldest son made from a book when he was in school - isn’t it adorable?

Let’s keep this blog hop going so make sure you head on over to see what Bev from Flamingo Toes has created for you today.

Thank you for joining us for our Workshop Wednesdays! I also want to thank the other ladies who let me be a part of this blog hop for all of their inspiring and creative ideas, so make sure you show them some blog love and hop on over to check out what creative ideas they are sharing today - Kara from Mine for the Making, Carol from The Answer is Chocolate,  and Michele from The Scrap Shoppe - and until December…Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas in July!

Tracey