[Nfb-krafters-korner] Christmas Crafts - Magazine tree

[Annette Carr]

Ok, all of this talk of bread dough ornaments and things to do with
Styrofoam balls got me thinking about some things I did as a kid, so I
thought I would share them with all of you.  I'm sending them in separate
messages for easier retrieval in the future, and to increase the chances
that I'll have time to get at least one idea shared before I'm interrupted.
 
 
Magazine Christmas Tree
Great project for kids.
 
Get an old magazine, one with more pages will result in a fuller tree.
Place it in front of you as if you were going to read it.  It does not
matter if it is up-side-down or not, just that the bound edge is the left
edge as it lays closed in front of you. 
 
Open the cover by turning it to the left.
 
Lift the Top right corner of the first page.
 
Fold it down toward the bottom left corner of the magazine.  You will not be
able to make the corners meet because the page is a rectangle and not a
square.  Your goal is to have the top edge of that first page line up with
the left edge of the page.  This is the bound edge of the magazine.
 
NOTE:  Use some type of object like a ruler edge, back of a spoon, side of a
pen or pencil, etc. to run along all of your creases to make them nice and
sharp.
 
You have now formed a triangle with the top portion of the page with a
rectangle sticking out below the triangle.
 
Lift the bottom right corner of that same first page.
 
Fold it up and to the left so that what was the right edge of the rectangle
is now parallel to the bottom edge of the triangle you made earlier.
 
Your page is now a lop-sided arrow that is pointing to the right.  The
larger triangle is above the smaller triangle.
 
Repeat these 2 folds on all pages and the back cover.
 
As you proceed, things will begin to get a little crowded.  This is to be
expected.  Just do the best you can.  You might find that using a thick
phonebook to work on top of will help as the folded pages cascade off of the
edge. 
 
You are going to do the same folds on the front cover, but you are going to
first lay the folded back cover on the front cover and then fold the front
cover over the back cover. 
 
Use a piece of tape or glue in toward the binding under the folded large
triangles of the cover to keep the magazine from wanting to close up.
 
Your tree has now been shaped.  Now comes the fun part, painting it.  Green
spray paint works best, but be creative.  
 
set up outside.  lay newspaper down on the ground to cover a large area.
You might want to lay rocks on the paper to keep it from blowing around.  
 
Place your magazine tree down in the center of the paper.  
 
Now it is time to spray paint your tree.  You can either go at this
yourself, let your kids do this next part, or get someone sighted to give
you verbal guidance on where to point the spray paint.  I recommend you wear
rubber gloves.  Go for it!
 
When it comes to decorating your tree, be creative.  glue things on to the
tree.  Cut out stars and glue them on.  Cut out stencils from paper and tape
them to the tree and then spray the tree with that fake snow and remove the
stencils.
 
have fun!