Make // Cork Tree

Before I sneak off for the Thanksgiving holiday, I thought I'd leave you a fun tree tutorial. All you need is a little cork, glue and a tree form.

I love the color and texture of cork and this little tree fits in perfectly with my existing collection of cream, gray and natural-colored decorative trees.

Click "Read more" for the tutorial

DIY Cork Tree

materials needed:

small roll of thin cork**

tree form - I used a 10.5-inch papier mache cone

scissors

hot glue gun

**You'll want to buy the roll in order to get the slight curve on the leaves. I bought mine for at Joanns for less than $3.

instructions:

Unroll your roll of cork.

Using the curve to your advantage, cut out the "leaves" with the tip curving in toward the bottom of the leaf. For my 10.5-inch tree form, my leaves measured 6 cm x 2 cm.

Using your hot glue gun, place a dot of glue on the flat part of your leaf.

Start gluing down leaves at the bottom of the tree form and work your way around and up. Layer and overlap the leaves as you go up.

When you near the tip of the tree form, you'll need to cut the base of each leaf so that it can wrap around.

Continue to overlap and glue down each leaf.

 For the very top of the tree, I cut the leaves so that there is a point at each end. 

Glue the top tips together to form the pointed tip of the tree.

And there you have it... A simple, yet whimsical cork tree!

And here's our Christmas mantel so far--

trees l to r with links to the tutorials: 

crushed shell | faux fur | pearl | satin ribbon | felt rose | stamped burlap | ruffled felt | pearl | stamped burlap | chiffon trim | cork | faux fur | mother of pearl | feather | muslin

Alright, enough procrastination...  I need to start preparing for the Thanksgiving Day festivities!