Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Tutorial: Toddler Safe 2-D Felt Christmas Tree

I just made this very simple tutorial, showing you step by step how to make this super safe 2-D felt Christmas tree.

Here are all the materials you will need. Foam boards, green felt, tape, utility knife, craft knife, mini lights, scissors, buttons, pins & niddle, and thread.
Step 1: Tape two pieces of foam boards together, using packaging tape or duct tape. Make sure you tape both front and back, and wrap around the sides.
Step 2: Draw a tree shape on foam board, and cut it out using utility knife. Don't worry about following the lines closely, it's going to be covered by felt, no one can see your mistakes.
Step 3: Lay your foam tree on top of felt. Make sure to iron your felt first, so your tree will be wrinkle free. Cut felt using your scissors, leaving about 2" edge. Fold the edge over, and tape it to the back of the board.
Step 4: Install the lights. Locate the position for your lights, make a cross cut from front with your craft knife. Flip the tree, and using the tip of your craft knife to make the hole a little bit bigger. Push the light bulb through. And repeat that for all your lights.
Step 5: Attach your tree to wall. My original plan was to attach the velcro tape directly to the back of the tree. But the wires for the lights made it impossible. So I simply cut a long rectangle shape from the scrap foam board, lightly cut 3 lines through just one layer of paper, bend it, and tape it into a little box shape. The height of the spacer block is about 2". Tape the spacer blocks to the back of the tree, between the wires. Peel off the paper and attach a piece of velcro tape (with adhesive on the back) to each spacer block. Keep two sides of the tape attached. Peel off paper on the other side, and stick your tree to the wall. Now your tree is "floating" on the wall.
Step 6: The moment of truth, plug it in, and Ta-dah!
Step 7: Now is the fun part, decorating! I forgot to take picture of how I attached those buttons to the tree. You can use twine or thin wire to attach the buttons. Thread wire/twine through button holes. Punch a small hole on your tree, using whatever tools available, I used a gigantic niddle. Push your wire/twine through the hole, and twist it or tie a knot. To keep the knot from falling through, grab a tiny piece of your scrap board, and secure it to the end. Hope I explain it clear enough. Now just simply hang your favorate ornaments on those colorful buttons. I made a whole bunch of felt ornaments and flowers. So, even if little caterpillar manage to pull the ornaments off, she won't break it and cut herself. To attach the flowers, just use a piece of double sided tape. And you are done!
Just sit back and relax. You just made a totally toddler-proof Christmas tree. Imagine all nicely wrapped gifts under this cute tree, and you and your baby sitting in front of it opening the gifts Christmas morning. Nobody will trip over the wire and drag the whole tree down. So, this tree is drunk-uncle-proof too! Go ahead and make it for your baby. You still have a couple of days left. This definitely can be a quick last minute project. Now let's take a look at the finished tree again. And please ignore the messy piles of toys in front of it.

3 comments:

Claudia said...

i loved this idea. Very creative. Congrats Thank you...

nj-oo said...

Nice work!

Naty Costa said...

This my favorite christmas felt tree project! I was just wondering, would cardboard work insetad of foam board??