How To Make Special DIY Paper Christmas Trees With Maps
My mantle is full of DIY and upcycled tabletop Christmas trees. There are felt Christmas trees made with old sweaters, Denim DIY Christmas trees made with old jeans and even some repurposed China plate trees. I thought it would be fun to add some DIY paper Christmas trees to this collection.
Most paper Christmas trees are made with old books. As I love crafting with maps so much and have quite a stash, I made my DIY paper Christmas trees out of old maps rather than books.
Old maps are a very affordable craft paper. You can pick up old maps from charity/thrift shops cheaply or even from elderly relatives for free. This, for me, often works out much cheaper than if I bought new craft paper from a store.
Also, I find that many old maps are printed in festive colours. The roads are often in red, rural areas coloured green and all printed on a white background. This makes them suited for making map Christmas trees.
These trees are straightforward to make; you could even get the kids involved with this one. Also, making the DIY paper Christmas trees out of maps of your favourite places will make them even more special.
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What You Need To Make Map Trees
- OId road maps - try thrift stores or friends and family for out-of-date old road maps.
- Rotary cutter and mat. Or paper guillotine
- Ruler
- Gorilla glue contact adhesive clear
- Wooden cotton reel
- Velvet ribbon in red or gold
- Gold paper or gold-leafed paper, star punch and toothpick.
How To Make DIY Paper Christmas Trees With Maps
Step 1: When making a DIY paper Christmas tree with maps instead of books, you must first turn the map into a book.
To do this, open out the road map. Then, cut up the map along the fold lines using either a rotary cutter, ruler, mat, or a paper guillotine.
Step 2: Next, stack the cut map sheets together, ensuring they all face the same way. Then cut a small strip of paper about 1" in width and the same length as the map sheets.
Place glue along the edges of the stacked map sheets and on one side of the paper strip. Wrap the paper strip around the edge of the map sheets to create a spine. Hold the map book spine in place with pegs whilst the glue dries.
Step 3: Once the glued spine has dried, the map book can be turned into a DIY paper Christmas tree.
Place the map book face down. Take the top right corner of the first page and fold it towards the centre (as in the picture below).
Step 4: Next, with the same page, fold the map in half again along the diagonal towards the centre. As you make the second fold, you will notice that the bottom of the map sticks out from the rest of the book. Simply fold and tuck this under.
Step 5: Carry on folding all the map pages similarly. Once finished, the map book should look like a map Christmas tree. Glue the two end pages together to maintain that DIY paper Christmas tree shape.
Step 6: To finish these DIY paper Christmas trees, wrap the velvet ribbon around the cotton reel. Then glue the cotton reel to the base of the map of Christmas trees to provide a base for the trees.
Step 7: For a final touch to map Christmas trees, make a star topper. Simply punch some star shapes out of gold paper. Glue the stars to the top of a toothpick. Then, slip the toothpick into the top of the paper Christmas trees.
I made two DIY paper Christmas trees, one with a red ribbon base and the other with a gold ribbon base.
You might want to check out my upcycled map heart garland made similarly. I've also made paper pine cones using old maps.
If you liked these map Christmas trees, you should check out these cone Christmas tree ideas and my other map Christmas crafts.
- Cotton Reel Map Christmas Ornament
- Repurposed Wood Map Ornaments
- Upcycled Map Leaf Wreath
- Christmas Crackers With Old Maps
- Map Paper Rosettes Decorations
- Repurposed Map Decorations
Find more ideas for Christmas crafts here.
The trees are wonderful. Love the size.
How many pages did you use?
Thank you so much. It depends on how full you want the tree to look I used about 16 pages.
Such a beautiful decoration! This will be one of my features this Saturday at the Snickerdoodle link party!
Thank you so much for the feature. Merry Christmas.
Absolutely love these , Claire! Pinned & sharing with my email list!
Thank you so much and cheers for the share that's awesome.
This map tree is so cute! I wish that I had the foresight to save all my dads maps.
Thank you. I always hang on to old maps they are so great o craft with.
Totally down with this idea.
Thank you so much!
This is so cute I love maps.
Me too! Thank you.
Your map trees are adorable - love the thread spool bases wrapped in velvet ribbon too!
Thank you so much. I have a bit of a thing about old thread spools at the moment.
I don't know of any other person who has so many gorgeous map and denim projects Claire. You always make me want to start collecting maps for crafts and go out there and buy more jeans 😉 These Christmas trees are adorable
Thank you Michelle. I just have a large collection of old denim and maps so I'm always looking for ways to repurpose them. Denim has to be my favourite fabric, I'm a big fan of indigo. Having traveled a lot and lived in a few countries maps are fascinating to me.
These are super sweet. I made a book tree from an old falling apart library books a few years back (a friend showed me how) which was made in a similar way which I put out with the decorations just yesterday. I love these mini versions. I can imagine one by each place at the Christmas dinner table (as long as you don't have too many people coming for dinner of course!!)
Thank you, Julie. I have quite a collection of mini trees on my mantle. I think they would also look good down the middle of the dinner table.
Wow, it looks complicated but they look so great! #HandmadeMonday
Thank you, they are actually pretty straightforward once you get your head around the details.