DIY Standing Felt Christmas Tree

Nothing brings on the warm, comforting feeling of the holidays like a Christmas tree. That is until your toddler decides to pull on the branches - or worse, test their tree-climbing skills!

Here's a fun project that will satisfy the most curious kids: the DIY Standing Felt Christmas Tree. We love it because the cute felt ornaments cling to the tree on their own and can be effortlessly peeled off. Ours is shaped like a pyramid, providing four equally-sized canvases kids can share. When the season is over, simply stick all the ornaments to the tree, untie all the ribbon on the edges, and stack the triangles to store.

This Christmas craft is inexpensive, easy to store, and easy to make. We'll show you how!

What You'll Need

• Kelly Green Acrylic Craft Felt by yard
• Acrylic Craft Felt Sample Bag
• Tri-fold foam display board (18” x 24”)
• 3/8” wide satin glitter ribbon (we used 4 colors)
• Adhesive spray (we used 3M Super 77 adhesive spray) or another type of fabric adhesive
• Scissors
• X-Acto knife
• Marker/pen/pencil
• Hot glue gun
• Hot glue sticks
• Packing tape (we used a heavy duty version)
• Cutting mat (optional)
• Cookie cutters (optional, 3” or smaller in size)
• Sequins (optional)
• Chalk (optional)

1. On the tri-fold foam display board, draw out the triangles for your tree using the marker/pen/pencil. We made it simple by drawing out 1 full triangle plus 6 triangle halves. This gave us 1 full triangle plus 3 triangles made from the halves, and used just one full board.

2. Using the X-Acto knife, carefully cut along the lines. We had to go over each line twice with the X-Acto knife to get a clean cut.

3. Tape 2 halves together with the packing tape to make full triangles. You should end up with 3 full triangles that have been taped from the halves.

4. Unroll/unfold the High Quality Acrylic Craft Felt and trace out the 4 triangle shapes onto the felt, leaving space in between. We traced them with chalk, but you can also use a marker if you prefer. You will need to invert 2 of the triangles (so that they look upside down) to fit all 4 triangles on the 1 yard of felt. We also left approximately 2 inches between each triangle.

5. Leaving approximately a 1 inch border around each triangle, cut them out using the scissors. We do not recommend an X-Acto knife for this step as it would cause the felt to bunch rather than cut, and your edges would appear more jagged. We recommend having the 1 inch border around each triangle so that you can fold the felt over the edges of the board to create a more “seamless” look.

6. In a well ventilated area, spray one side of a display board triangle with the adhesive spray.

 7. Carefully line up the adhesive side of the display board triangle with the outline on the felt triangle and gently press down to stick, making sure the adhesive is sticking to all areas and the felt is flat underneath.

8. With the felt underneath the triangle, spray the edges of the foam board triangle and fold over the excess felt border to cover the edges of the foam board. This provides a nicer look when complete because you won't be able to see the white edges of the board.

9. Repeat steps 6-8 for the remaining foam board triangles and felt triangles.

10. While the adhesive is drying on the triangles, you can create the ornaments for the tree. Simply take the cookie cutters and, using a marker/pen, trace them onto the High Quality Acrylic Felt Sample Bag pieces. You can also draw the shapes out by hand or use other templates if you prefer. For our tree, we used 1 square of each color and took out the darker colors. However, for more ornaments or a fuller tree, you can use the full sample bag. Cut out the ornament shapes using scissors.

11. Grab the 4 tree triangles and place them side by side to form a half-octagon shape (like in the picture).

12. Using your hot glue gun, glue the ribbon to your tree triangles in any pattern you choose, like a garland. However, when you reach the edge of a triangle, leave extra ribbon so that you will be able to tie all the pieces together later on.

For our pattern, we marked 3 dots on each side of the triangles. Starting from the top mark, we then crossed to the middle mark diagonally on the same triangle piece. We then glued the ribbon on the 2 marks with extra on each end for tying. From the middle mark on the next triangle piece, we crossed to the bottom mark diagonally, and glued the ribbon on the two marks with extra on each end. Then we worked our way back up until we made it across all 4 triangles. We repeated with pattern with all 4 ribbon colors.

13. Once the ribbon has been glued, simply stand up the triangles and lean them against each other to form a square base. Tie the ribbons together tightly on each seam to hold the tree together, making sure to match the colors if you used our pattern.

14. Now take the felt ornaments you cut out earlier and simply stick them to the tree. You do not need any adhesive as the felt pieces stick to the felt tree by themselves and can easily be moved around by toddlers and children.