The 6 Foot Tree

Most of the years I helped with the Christmas windows at Folly 101 I made some sort of a Christmas tree for one of the front windows.  In 2012 these little pleated trees below were the inspiration for this 6 foot tree.

This was Astrid's mock up....using a couple of colors of green card stock.  This one was about 6 inches....I was shooting for 5 or 6 feet...including the base and the topper.

I didn't take any pictures of the process at home....I didn't know I would be blogging about it.  I started with very large pieces of really nice art card stock in a two tones of green. 

I scored the paper so it could pleat easily then started folding.  It took some figuring to decide how many sheets were needed to glue together to give each layer enough flare and keep it proportional. My friend Joan was very helpful during the process...her mathematical skills...her artistic eye...and her extra pair of hands were a life saver.

Once I had the layers figured out I needed to find a way to hold them up. I used a piece of PVC pipe in the center secured in a bucket of rocks and sand. I cut various sizes of circles out of cardboard to use as supports under each layer....kind of like an umbrella. These circles had to be taped and secured onto the pole one at a time as we assembled the tree in the store. You can see a cardboard circle in this picture ready for the next layer.

Using a large styrofoam ball I made a curly topper for the tree that was suspended from the ceiling. 

This may not be my favorite tree...but I was proud of the fact that I made it work.