Two weeks ago, Susi and I challenge each other to a Crafty Head-to-Head. We were both going to make a Christmas tree of felt leaves inspired by one she saw at Marshall’s (though that style of tree is everywhere this year). So now, I send my entry into the ring.

My tree is covered with the same style leaf I used one my Felt Leaf Wreath. It is much simpler than the one in the inspiration, but that meant it was a lot easier to cut out a quantity of them. I decided I didn’t want red berries on mine like the original, instead I added a little silver glitter to the tips of all the leaves for some bling.

Ok, let’s compare cost. The tree at Marshall’s was a bargain at $14.99. I spent $6.99 on the tree form and about $4.00 on the felt. I already had the glue and glitter paint in my stash, but let’s say I used about $2.00 worth. So, that is a total of $12.99. As for time, I probably spent between two and three hours to make this tree. So, crafting this wasn’t really a bargain, but I was able to make a version of the tree that suited my decor better.

Here it is in my living room alongside the Knit Scalloped Tree I made earlier this year.

Felt Leaf Tree (Kat’s Version)

Supplies:

• white felt (about 1/4 yard if you are just doing leaves, but more if you are covering the foam)
• cardstock or cardboard to make leaf pattern
• fabric pen
• pinking shears
• straight pins (optional)
• styrofoam tree form, try to get white if you can (mine was 4 7/8″ x 14 7/8″)
• fabric scissors
• glue for styrofoam
• regular craft glue (I used tacky glue, but you only need this if you are covering the tree form first.)
• silver glitter paint
• small paintbrush

1. Cut a basic leaf pattern from the cardstock or cardboard. My leaves were 3 3/4″ tall and 1″ wide. Use that to trace leaves on the white felt.

Cut the leaves out with the pinking shears. I needed 72 leaves to cover my tree.

I pinned the leaves on the tree as I cut them out, just to see how many I needed and to look at the layout. This is helpful but optional.

I took the leaves off and put them in piles by row which helped me get the spacing right when gluing them on.

2. Everyone was sold out of white tree forms, so I needed to use a green one. I didn’t like the fact the green showed through the white felt a little. To fix that I covered the form completely with felt. I used the styrofoam glue to glue it on. If you are using a white tree you can skip this step, but you might still want to glue a circle of felt on the bottom of the tree.

The top of the tree forms is usually flat, but I wanted more of a point. I glued on a little ball of felt on top to help with that shape.

4. Starting at the bottom, glue the leaves on one row at a line. If you are gluing directly onto the foam use styrofoam glue, if you have covered the form with felt you can just use craft glue. The leaves should overlap a little (the amount depends on the size of your leaf and how many are in the particular row).  I layered mine over/under.

When one row is done, continue with the one above. I started each row in the front of the tree with the point of a leaf between two leaves below (they won’t all match up that nicely all the way around as the tree gets smaller.) I placed each row about a half leaf higher than the last.

When you get to the last row, glue the tops of the leaves together to form a point.

5. Paint the tips of the leaves with the sliver glitter paint, curling the leaves up as you go. I also used a small amount of glitter on the body of the leaf too.

(You could paint your leaves before gluing them on if you want to as well. I decided to add the glitter after I was already done.)