Dollhouse Miniature 3-D Christmas Tree

 

Watch the video here.

Let’s take a moment to talk about today’s project. I keep seeing these little 3-D trees all over my social media feeds. They seem to normally be made of wood and I see them both painted and left as the natural wood color. I thought since they are so popular in real life the dollhouse family should get some too.

So I have another free pattern for you to download so you make the project. You can find the file here. In the download there are 3 files: a PDF for hand-cutting of the pieces, a PNG to use with your electronic cutting machine and a text file with handy hints and tips (and the sizing information) to use the PNG.

As with most of these projects I cut all the pieces from medium weight white card-stock, the kind used to make cards and such. This is way more economical than having to purchase a bunch of colors and in my experience the paint colors are a lot more stable than the paper colors. I rarely get noticeable fading with the painted projects.

You are free to use the pattern as many times as you wish and even to sell the finished project. But, please don’t give away or sell my patterns. I spend a lot of time creating them and the only compensation I get is from people watching the videos and checking out the blog post. I really want to keep offering these for free so please if someone else wants to make one send them to the video and blog so they can get their own copy of the pattern.

This project is pretty simple with only two shapes for each tree and 3 layers of each shape. I decided to make 3 sizes because that seems to be how most people are showing off the real ones. Once you have your pieces cut you simply need to glue the units together like I show in the video. When you are done you should have these 6 units. To glue I like to use a nice thick Tacky glue and apply a thin even coat with a toothpick. Once glued I would suggest putting these under a weight to help them stay flat until they get at least part way dry. Once they pieces are completely dry we can move on to assembly.

The assembly for this project is really simple because now all we need to do is add glue and slip the slotted units together to form a tree shape. Once the are put together look at them from different angles to make sure they are standing straight and let the glue dry. If you have a huge empty space in the center just add a bit more glue to the area to fill it. I didn’t have any problems with the ones I made on camera but the one I made before filming to test the pattern had a large gap in the center.

Once the glue dries we can paint our trees, you can use any color you want on your trees. I just went with a very boring bright green but I’ve seen these in many colors. A lot of people are just leaving the real ones plain wood and you can get that look with a light beige paint. If you want yours white I would still paint it to help disguise the layers of card stock.

I do like to use some really sticky double sided tape to temporarily attach the trees to craft sticks. This adds a handle to the tree and makes it so much easier to paint them.

Once the paint dries a quick coat of Satin Mod Podge will finish off the trees and make them look really nice.

 

 

 

Then all you need to do is pop them off the craft stick and display them in the dollhouse.

 

 

As always I do want to sincerely thank all of you for watching my videos and reading my blog posts. It means so much to me that you are supporting me in this way. If I could ask you all to do just a bit more by subscribing to the channel and liking the videos and leaving comments. Those help more than you can imagine. Also if you could pass the links on to your friends I would appreciate it so much.