Ok, so I know it’s past Christmas and you probably don’t want to make Christmas tree decorations anymore, but I said I’d post these, and I am going to, dangit! So, use these trees to decorate for January, or have a tree-themed party sometime in the next month as an excuse to make these cute trees, okay?

Martha Stewart recommends doing it like this. But of course, I didn’t follow her directions exactly…

I started with old newspaper (and an old book, not a good one, I promise!) and cut out lots of different sizes of paper squares.

Now, Martha says to make the squares a half an inch smaller starting at 6 inches and going to 1 1/2 inches. I did this…sort of.

I thought that made the trees look a little bumpy and I wanted them to be a bit more smooth, so I made mine with some transition pieces that I cut at quarter-inch intervals (5 1/4, 5 1/2, and 5 3/4 inches, for example). Also, I didn’t start with 6 inches. I didn’t want my trees to be that chubby…and I went down to about 3/4 of an inch squares on the top. (It’s hard to get them on the needles without ripping them. Just go slow and be careful.

For the base and the center, I used knitting needles from my mother-in-law and wooden frames that my handy Hubs made for my using old lumber scraps from my dad’s garage. He even painted them brown for me!

I should say that I tried to use baking clay (that I made from a recipe I found on the internet) and it went into the oven like this:

But then this happened:

So, I went with something a bit more sturdy.

And started stacking the squares like this:

It does work to do more than one sheet at a time, as long as you arrange them a bit in your hand by alternating the corners a bit to make your trees look nice and full all the way around.

Keep stacking with the different sized squares until you reach the size and shape that you want for your tree. I left a bit on the top of mine to tie my ribbon on, but you could top yours anyway you like.

I also sprayed the edges of mine with glitter spray to make them a bit more festive. And I used bright colored bits of newspaper so my trees had a bit of color on them.

But..I have one last secret. Are you ready?

Martha suggests that you start with some sturdy card stock on the bottom of your stack to help support the weight of the thin newsprint. But I interspersed layers of card stock all the way up my tree to keep it from sagging. (If you watch the Martha Stewart video, you’ll see that her trees are fatter and a bit more droopy than mine.)