Advent Christmas Tree Tutorial

This project might look complicated, but it's not I promise! It is such a fun project and such a cute Christmas Decoration! Way better than those store bought advent calendars you buy for your kids! You just have to make this one once and you can reuse it every year!

Supplies Needed:

24 Mini Matchboxes

(I bought all of the matchboxes at my local dollar store and they came in packages of ten)

24-- 1/4" wooden plugs

(you can find these at Michaels, or Robert's, depending on the kind you buy they can have 25 in a package or 20)

Red and Green Paint

Sponge Brush

10 different pieces of coordinating scrapbook paper

(Each piece needs to be cut 2" x 12")

Hot glue gun, and glue sticks

Scissors

3" star

2 Red Buttons

Step 1: Get all of your supplies ready. Since I did this for craft night I bought about 15 different styles of Christmas paper, but if you are just doing one you can basically make it with 10 different kinds OR if you don't want to buy as many you could easily make it with about 5 different pieces. Each piece is cut 2" X 12"

Step 2: Paint your knobs. I did this at the begining so they would have time to dry. I painted them half red and half green. You could also just do one color.

**Tip: my mom taught me that if you put your knobs on duct tape or any other type of tape then it's a lot easier to paint them because they stay in place!

Step 3: Separate the insides of your matchboxes from the outsides. This is because you don't want to accidentally glue them shut.

Step 4: You are going to glue each layer of your matchboxes together. So the first layer is the stump which is 2 matchboxes. So glue the side of one of you matchoxes and glue it to another. I like to sit it on the table so I know it's exactly even.

Step 5: continue glueing all of your layers. You should have

2 layers of 4 matchboxes

2 layers of 3 matchboxes

4 layers of 2 matchboxes

and 2 single matchboxes

Step 6: You are going to start glueing your paper to each layer of your matchboxes. For the stump I decided to do it with a brown patterned paper. So take your 2" x 12" piece of brown paper and cut it in half. So you have two 2" x 6" pieces of brown paper. You are doing this, because the stump is two layers of 2 matchboxes.

Step 7: glue the top of your 2 matchboxes and put your 2" x 6" piece of paper on the top, making sure you center the piece on the two. Then glue the sides and the back, making sure your paper is glued on all sides of the matchbox. You are going to do this to another set of 2 matchboxes so that you have 2 sets of 2 matchboxes with brown paper.

Step 8: glue your other pieces of paper on each layer of the tree.

*for the sets of three and the other sets of two and the single matchboxes you will not need to use your whole piece of 2" x 12" piece of paper because you don't need the paper to overlap. You are going to use the extra paper for the fronts of your matchboxes!

Step 9: As soon as you have glued all your paper on all of your layers you are going to glue them all together! Start with the base which is the two layers of 2 matchboxes then it goes as follows:

2 layers of 4

2 layers of 3

2 layers of 2

1 single

1 single

Step 10: Use your scraps for the fronts of your matchboxes. Apply a thin layer of hot glue on the front of the inside of one of your mathboxes.

Step 11: Put it on a piece of paper. You don't have to cut it out to fit and then glue it, just glue it on a scrap and when it dries cut around the matchbox so you can get the perfect size.

You are going to do this to all 24 of your matchboxes.

Step 12: To make the star stand up you need two scraps of paper cut into a thin strip about 1/4" or smaller. Hot glue one of your buttons to your star. When you are done with this you can number your boxes. 1-24

Step 13: you will bend one of your scraps a little bit and hot glue it down on the top like pictured. Then do the same thing to the other scrap but on the back of your first one. Then hot glue your star on.

Step 14: Glue your other button on the base of the scrap to hide it.

Step 15: Hot glue your knobs on the fronts of you matchboxes and put in your candy and you're done!