Hello and welcome to the 12 Days of Christmas hosted by my friend Shirley from Intelligent Domestications!  This is my first year participating in this blog hop and I am super excited to do so!  On this second day of Christmas, we are sharing our favorite Christmas movie and a craft or recipe to go along with it.  My favorite Christmas movie of all time is National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.  I remember the first time I ever watched it when I was a kid, I don’t think I had ever laughed that hard in my life.  🙂  I could watch it over and over.  One of my favorite scenes from the movie is when they go to find the “perfect” Christmas tree.  While we are not cutting down our own tree today, I made some fun and easy DIY Cone Christmas Trees.

You can find the tutorial below and at the bottom of the post, check out all the movie picks and crafts or recipes from the many talented bloggers we have joining us for this blog hop.

If you want to check out any of the other 11 days, you can find them here:

• Day 1 – DIY Ornament | Wooden Bead Christmas Trees
• Day 3 – Abstract Snowman DIY
• Day 4 – Sugared Cranberries and Rosemary Cupcakes
• Day 5 – Dollar Store Craft | Sparkly Gem Christmas Tree
• Day 6 – Christmas Gift Exchange Ideas
• Day 7 – Disney Inspired Hot Cocoa Bar
• Day 8 – Hot Cocoa Peppermint Cookies
• Day 9 – DIY Christmas Magnolia Wreath
• Day 10 – Silver and Gold Christmas Tablescape
• Day 11 – Christmas Front Porch Decor
• Day 12 – Silver, Gold and Light Green Snowy Christmas Tree

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Welcome to the third annual 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop!

Stop by every day from December first through the twelfth for new ideas you can use to make your season brighter!

Meet Your Hosts

They have all been busy as Elves creating, decorating, cooking and crafting tons of new ideas for you to try this holiday season!

Shirley~Intelligent Domestications I Alli~An Alli Event I Michelle~Our Crafty Mom

Marie~DIY Adulation I Erlene~My Pinterventures I Beverly~Across The Blvd.

Debra~Shoppe No. 5 I Victoria~Dazzle While Frazzled I Jenny~Cookies Coffee & Crafts

Michelle~Michelle James Designs I Amanda~Domestically Creative I Megan~C’mon Get Crafty 

Deborah~Salvage Sister & Mister I Jeanie~Create & Babble I Sherry~Olives & Okra

Jenny~Cookies Coffee & Crafts I Emily~Domestic Deadline I Bonbon~Farmhouse 40

Leanna~Of Faeries & Fauna I Pam Larmore~P.S. I Love You Crafts I Kelly~North Country Nest

Marie~The Inspiration Vault I Gail~Purple Hues and Me I Lynne~My Family Thyme

Karen~Dragonfly and Lily Pads I Trisha~Blowing Away Out West I Sam~Raggedy Bits

Terri~Christmas Tree Lane I Lorrin~Embrace The Perfect Mess I Cyn~Creative Cynchronicity  

Valeria~Val Event Gal I Yami~The Latina Next Door I Jeannee~Centsably Creative

Tania~Little Vintage Cottage I Lauren~Wonderfully Made I Vanessa~DIY 180 

Kimberly~A Wonderful Thought I Kim~Everyday Parties  I Dru~Polka Dot Poplars

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These DIY cone Christmas Trees are a super easy craft and perfect to make while watching your favorite movie. 😉 Another added bonus is that they are very inexpensive! I have seen similar trees at Hobby Lobby for $25-$35 each! I think I spent about $5 for the supplies, however I had some of these on hand already.  Even if you bought everything they would still be inexpensive.  Also, they will be beautiful Christmas decor you can reuse year after year.

*There are links to products in this post that I use or are similar to products I use.  If you buy something from one of these links, I may make a small commission (with no additional cost to you) from the purchase.  I will not recommend anything that I would not buy myself.  Thank you for supporting my blog!

For this project you will need:

• Old posters or poster board
• Silver tinsel garland
• Gold bead garland
• 1/2 yard white felt
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks
• Scissors
• Tape measure

I decided to make some cones from some old cub scout posters we had laying around.  Another option is to use poster board.  If you do not want to make your own cones, you can always buy some paper-mache cones similar to this.

I rolled the poster into a cone shape and adjusted it until I got the size I wanted.  My cones measured (Height x Diameter of bottom) 21″ x 5.75″, 18.5″ x 5.25″ & 16″ x 5″.  I used hot glue to secure the outside flap of the cone.  The trees do not come to a point at the top but that does not matter as they will be covered with different materials.  Of course the bottom of the cone needed to be cut so it would be able to stand up.  I measured from the top and made marks along the bottom at the respective measurements of the trees.  Then I just cut with scissors along the dotted lines.

The bigger cones had a notched area on the bottom because the poster I was using was not big enough to wrap all the way around.  As you will see, that actually came in handy.  😉

Tinsel Tree

The first tree I made, and by far the simplest, was the tinsel tree.  We already had some of this tinsel around so I just started playing with it on the tree to see what it looked like.  The tinsel was perfect for my silver, gold and light green color scheme this year because the iridescent spiral in the middle matches the green of the rest of my decorations.  🙂  I used my biggest cone which had a big notch at the bottom.  I started at the top of the cone sticking the end of the tinsel in the opening and just wrapped the tinsel around the tree.  When I got to the bottom, I slipped the end of the strand into the notch on the cone and stuck the rest of the strand inside.

That’s it!  There was no need to even use glue!  That is nice because I may want to use the tinsel or change up the tree in the future.

Gold Bead Tree

This was the second tree I made.  Again it was very simple but this one actually required hot glue.  I started at the bottom of the cone by gluing the first bead down in place.  Then I just started wrapping the gold beads around the cone, gluing about every 6-7 beads to hold it down.

When I came to the end of a strand, it was almost seamless to continue with the next strand.  Glue the last bead and first bead of the next strand right next to each other.

Keep wrapping and gluing until you get to the top.

Because the cone does not end in a point, I had to fashion one from the beads.  It ended up being more of a rounded top but it was easy to do and still looks great!

Here is the finished product.

Felt Tree

This is my favorite tree of the bunch but it was also the most time consuming.  I was inspired by these trees from Pottery Barn Kids.  However, I was not going to use felted wool.  I figured regular felt would be fine.

I drew a leaf shape onto a piece of cardboard (you could just use a cereal box) to use as my template.  When I got it to the size I wanted, I started cutting out some leaf shapes.  We made a road trip to our hometown for Thanksgiving, so I just used that time in the car to cut out the leaf shapes.  I folded the felt over so I was cutting out two at a time.  There was no need to trace the shape on the felt and cut it out, you can easily just cut around the cardboard template.

At the bottom of the cone, you would be able to see the cone through the first layer leaf shapes so I cut a couple strips of felt about 1.25 inches wide to glue on the cone.

I wanted the bottom of the leaf shapes to be unsecured so they would lift off of the cone a little bit.  This would give the tree more dimension.  So I just glued the top of the leaf shape to the cone.  I started along the bottom by placing the leaf so the bottom edge just touched the table.  Continue gluing the leaf shapes onto the cone placing one directly next to the one before.  Once you get to the end, you may have to overlap them a little but that is fine.

I started the second row so the bottom of the leaf shape hit the center of the first layer.  As you go along, you will have to do some overlapping of the leaf shapes.  They will not all line up perfectly between the layer below it.

When you get to the top, you will take 3 leaf shapes and glue them together to form a pointed top.

I was going to add the pearls like in the Pottery Barn picture but ran out of time to get some.  🙂  Maybe that will be an addition next year.

Are you inspired to make some cone trees now?  They were really simple to make and I think they look as good as store bought ones.  But I may be a little biased.  😉

See you tomorrow for the third day of Christmas!  🙂

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Be sure to visit our fellow 12 Days of Christmas Bloggers below for even more creative ideas this holiday season!