I already had a few foam cones in my craft room so the only thing I had to purchase for these trees was the foam. I found a pack of green, red & white craft foam at Wal Mart for $5 which I thought was a steal! With my handy glue gun near by it was time to get to work!
I made a leaf template out of a cardboard box that was headed to the recycle bin. It took a few trials but I finally got a shape I was happy with. Then I used this template to trace leaf shapes all over the foam sheets. I squeezed them in pretty tight so there wasn't much wasted. Once the leaves are traced onto the foam the fun begins. And by fun I mean the painstaking process of cutting out all the leaves. It actually wasn't too horrible since I usually did it at night while I watched TV with John. I ended up needing about 250 leaves for one tall (12") and one short (6") tree.
With my leaves nicely bagged to protect them from my little leaf eating toddler, I headed down to the craft room to hang out with my bestest crafting buddy, my glue gun! Is there anything a glue gun can't do?! I started by gluing the first row of leaves to the bottom of the tree and letting half of the leaf to hang past the bottom of the cone. This way the cone will be completely covered. The second row of leaves added off-set from the first row, so the space between each leaf is covered. This process is repeated to cover the entire cone.
Once you reach the top of the cone you want about 1/4 of the top of the leaf to stick up over the top of the cone. The next row is off-set and glued onto the top of the last row. This is repeated until the top forms a peak, then glue all the points together.
Originally Posted on Marisa Howard Designs
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