Cute and easy Christmas trees

Last week it was all about trees here at Camp Scarlet. We made these from pine cones. First, I spray-painted the cones green and let them dry. Then, I had the kids paint tiny clay pots--I think these are 2.5" diameter, and if I was going to do it again, I'd use smaller pots.

After the pots dried (with a little help from my hair dryer--might as well use it for something), I put some play dough into the bottom of each pot and smooshed a cone down into the dough--this was supposed to help the cones stay upright, but it didn't quite work out the way I envisioned.  I'm guessing if I had used newer play dough, that hadn't yet had a chance to dry out, this would have worked better.  But I didn't want to sacrifice any of our good dough.

Next, the kids glued various shiny things to their trees--we used "jewels," sequins, beads, and some star shaped buttons.  I thought about using some thin shiny ribbon for garland, but the kids decided not to.  We're currently using Roger's cone tree as our centerpiece.

We also made some trees out of cardboard.  I was planning on having the kids use these as Advent calendars, adding one paper ornament each day until Christmas, but that didn't end up happening.

First I had the kids paint a rectangle of cardboard with green paint.  They opted to do a wash of gold glitter paint on top of the green.  After they dried, I cut the cardboard into tree shapes, and the kids started decorating.

 I was originally intending for the kids to glue on the same sorts of shiny things as they used for the pine cones, but the kids decided to use puffy paints instead.  Here's what Roger's ended up looking like.  He decided that our fish needed a Christmas tree, so it's hanging out behind the fish tank.

You could easily make 3-D trees with just a few more steps.  Make sure you decorate both sides of the cardboard, then make a vertical cut in the middle of one tree from the top to about half-way down.  Then make a vertical cut in the middle of the second tree from the bottom to about half-way up, and slide the trees together.

I have a couple more fun tree ideas, but they'll have to wait for another time.  Enjoy!