"But as for me and Grandpa, we Believe..."

Christmas 2013

I fully admit to being a Christmas nerd.  A flaming, unrepentant Christmas nerd.  Now, we're not talking wearing mini ornaments for earrings or tacky holiday sweaters.  I do draw the line somewhere.  But, I will admit to not changing the station when "Grandma got Run Over by a Reindeer" comes on the radio.

Okay fine, I actually own the song and it's part of my monster Christmas playlist.  I listen to it all month long.  And I may or may not have reindeer antlers that I wear during December.  In the comfort of my own home. Once or twice a week.  What?  It makes me happy.  Leave it alone, Scrooges!

Since October is long gone and I've got a pine tree in my living room, it can only mean one thing.  Time for some Christmas crafts!

I'm always drawn toward paper crafts, so my centerpiece this year is a paper Christmas tree craft I found here.  I recycled all of the Christmas cards we received last year for this years centerpiece.  It turned out cute!

I recently ordered a circle cutter and mat and was able to bust them out for the first time for this project.  What a fun little tool the circle cutter is!  Along with them, my supply list was:

1. Old Christmas cards
2. Hot Glue Gun
3. Dowels
4. Foam Circles
5. Craft scissors
6. Exacto Knife

My fancy new circle cutter, cutting mat, and crafting scissors

So, here's the gist of this project.  You'll want to cut various sized circles in gradually smaller and smaller circumferences from your old Christmas cards (or any hard stock paper you want to use), and use the crafting scissors to scallop the edges of some of the circles.

Once you've cut a few circles, snip out a little slice, like a piece of pizza, so you can curl the circle into a cone shape.

Top:  The circle cutter ready to cut    Left: Wedge cut from a circle    Right:  Circle curled into a cone shape & taped

Once you've curled the circles into cone shapes, tape the edge to secure it, and make a small hole at the peak of the cone using the tip of the exacto knife.  This is where you'll slide the circle through the dowel.

For the base and "trunk," I used foam and dowel-like sticks I already I had in my crafting stash.  I'm always saving odd things that most people would throw away or recycle because I can see possibly using it as a crafting supply in some not-yet-determined project.  I'm kind of a pack rat in that way.  That's exactly what the foam and dowel-type sticks are. 

The foam came from a Harry & David gift box, and I can't even remember where the sticks came from.  Came in handy for my Christmas crafts this year.  Anyway, here's the base and trunk:

After securing the dowel into the foam, slide the largest circles to the bottom.  I used hot glue to anchor each circle to the dowel, and I alternated the scallloped edge circles with straight edged circles for variety.  Just continue stacking each circle until the tree is the height you'd like. 

 
For the top, I tied some green yarn in a bow and added a red bead as the "star."  Here's the finished centerpiece on my kitchen table:

 I love the way they turned out!  I think they'd be cute with different shades and designs of green scrapbook paper, too. 

I'm calling my Christmas crafts done for this year.  Hope maybe you're inspired to craft something up yourself!  And by all means throw on some reindeer antlers and crank up the Elmo and Patsy.   ♪ ♫ "...She'd been drinking too much eggnog..."  ♫ ♪

Ta-ta for now. And MERRY CHRISTMAS!