Cardboard Christmas tree project
Probably a bit late for this now, but I thought my cardboard Christmas tree project was worth a quick post as it’s been mentioned on a couple of friends sites now (cheers Recycle This & The Daily Chump) so I thought it deserved a home.
Here’s some background: a couple of weeks ago, I decided it would be quite cool to make a cardboard Christmas tree out of a very large cardboard box we had left over after buying a new mattress for our bed. The idea appealed for a few reasons:
- we had a big box and it seemed a waste to take it to the tip
- going out to fetch a real tree also seemed wasteful: a waste of petrol, time and also not forgetting it being a total waste of tree
- I couldn’t face hoovering up pine needles daily
- Richard Garside & I have a related ongoing project called “Cardboard Laptop Stand” (watch this space) so making cardboard versions of things tends to seep into my mind quite readily
It took about 3 hours to make the tree, and I felt super victorious after it’s construction was complete.
Stuff you need to make your own:
a very large cardboard box- a very sharp Stanley / craft knife and cutting board
- a metal edged ruler
- a diagram of the shape of your tree
- a pen
- lots of floor space
- hair grips to secure your decorations, although they mostly stay on on their own
As I was making the tree, I took photos of each step and uploaded them to Flickr, with annotations - essentially forming step-by-step instructions on how to build your very own Cardboard Christmas Tree
January 2nd, 2009 at 10:56 pm
Thats Awesome, and almost looks as good as my “£6 + 2 minutes to put up and decorate” tree
Too bad it has to go down soon
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:33 pm
I have tree envy. I didn’t get round to getting a tree this year.
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:43 pm
For “a very sharp Stanley / craft knife and cutting board”, should that not read Folksy ruler?
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:46 pm
@hamerr - I did use a folksy ruler come to think of it!
I think you cut and paste the wrong line though
January 3rd, 2009 at 12:22 pm
[...] out of old-style lightbulbs too but can’t remember the details… And our friend Deb has made a Christmas tree out of cardboard (the last time we had a tree, a good few years ago now, we had a cardboard one too - but [...]