Cardboard Christmas Tree

Materials:

High resolution image of a Christmas Tree
1 piece 5ft x 4ft Cardboard
2 pieces 2ft x 1ft Cardboard
A Packet of Wallpaper Paste
Paste Brush
Bucket
Mixing Stick
Packaging Tape
16  A3 sheets of printer paper
Printer
Craft Knife or Scissors
Set of Tree Lights

On the internet search for an image of a tree you like the look of. I searched using google and modified the search criteria so that I could find high resolution images as these would scale up without looking too fuzzy.

Using an image editor, scale the tree image to the size you require. In my case I wanted the tree to be 4ft 6in high x 3ft wide I used Adobe Photoshop, selected the Image menu and edited the figures to suit and saved the file as a .pdf.

Open up the tree .pdf in Adobe Acrobat Reader and select print as Poster at 100%. Printing as poster will print the tree image on as many sheets of A3 or A4 as it requires. My tree took 16 sheets of A3.

Trim the tree printouts leaving about 5mm white edging all the way around the image. Lay the cardboard on your work surface or floor in my case. Position the Tree printouts on the cardboard. This will give you an idea of how it will look and help when trimming some of the white edging so that the pieces match together correctly.

Starting from the bottom left hand corner(no.1) working across to the right hand corner(no.4) I trimmed the 2nd, 3rd and 4th left hand white edges only so that when I paste the images together they match up like patterned wallpaper. Please note that the bottom edge will need trimming too as you go up a level. Repeat this process up to the 12th image.

11-12 (trim the bottom of 11 and bottom and left edge of 12)
9-10 (trim the bottom of 9 and bottom and left edge of 10)
5-6-7-8 (trim the bottom of 5 and bottom and left edges of 6-7 & 8)
1-2-3-4 (trim the left edges of 2-3 & 4)

Using the wallpaper paste or any other suitable paper adhesives glue the tree images to the cardboard starting in the bottom left hand corner working across to the right.

11-12
9-10
5-6-7-8
1-2-3-4

Using a craft knife or scissors carefully cut out the tree. I found using a craft knife worked best for me.

I used two pieces of cardboard at approx 2ft high x 1ft wide cut a slight angle at the bottom edge so that the tree would lean back slightly when stood up.

Position each leg making sure that the longest edge is situated towards the center of the cardboard tree and tape that edge with the packaging tape, flip the leg taped and tape the reverse side. Do this for both legs.

Using your tree lights starting at the top in a spiral working down wrap them around the tree.
Switch the lights on and hey presto job done.

Well done.