If you decide to make a Christmas tree yourself , you will have to learn how to make a paper cone for the Christmas tree. All products are usually made on just such a frame. Of course, you can buy a ready-made foam cone, but, firstly, this is not a very cheap option, and secondly, you will be limited by the size of the product that you found. The best idea is to make your own foundation. Explore your options. Use the method of work that suits you.
Manufacturing methods
If you are thinking about how to make a cone out of paper for a Christmas tree with your own hands, you can rejoice, as there are several possibilities for making a base for decoration:
- Collapse from the sheet on the basis of a bag.
- Glue on a pattern drawn on the basis of a circle.
- Make using papier-mâché using volumetric blanks.
In the following sections, you will learn more about how to make a paper cone for a Christmas tree. Photos will clearly illustrate the work process and the result. Each of the methods is quite simple to work with, and which is more convenient is for you to decide.
Tools and materials
Whichever of the manufacturing methods you choose, to make a cone out of paper for a Christmas tree, you will need the following:
- A sheet of whatman paper, cardboard or colored paper.
- Pencil.
- Compass or stencil (plate, dish, basin).
- Scissors.
- Glue or thermal gun (you can take a double-sided tape or stapler).
That is all that is needed. In some cases, you will also have to use a knife.
How to roll a cone from a sheet
This method is simple and easy. A child will be able to complete the preparation. To understand how to make a cone of paper for a Christmas tree in this way, it is enough to take a rectangular or square (which is available) sheet of thick paper and roll it in the form of a bag. The stronger you wrap the workpiece, the narrower (slimmer) the cone will be.
To fix the product, you can glue the PVA seam, with a heat gun, fasten with a stapler, use double-sided tape.
The next important step will be cutting the bottom, since when you twist a rectangular sheet at the bottom, you get not a smooth edge, but with a corner on one side. Cut the part as accurately as possible, because it will depend on how parallel the base of your Christmas tree will be located in relation to the horizontal plane.
How to make a flat bottom
From the previous section, you learned how to make a paper cone for a Christmas tree by twisting it from a rectangular blank. If you can’t make a neat bottom, just cut it off with scissors, and you need to do a lot of fir trees, you can make an auxiliary device for leveling. It is a cardboard template with a round hole corresponding to the diameter of the base of the cone.
You can make such a tool like this:
- Take a thick cardboard, for example, corrugated or glue a workpiece from several layers.
- Draw a circle with a compass or circle a suitable pattern (plate) along the contour.
- Cut a hole.
Use such a tool as follows:
- Insert the cone rolled from the sheet into the hole so that the contour of the tool circle matches the bottom of the cone.
- Take a sharp knife and cut off the excess paper.
Here is a finished cone with a neat bottom.
How to make a cone from paper for a Christmas tree: step by step instructions
You can make the base in another way according to a previously prepared template. In this case, you do not have to align the lower part, as it will be neat. To work with this method, you must perform the following steps:
- On a sheet for making a cone, draw a circle whose radius corresponds to the height of the Christmas tree.
- Through the center, draw the diameter guides perpendicular to one another.
- Cut a circle along the contour.
- Define and cut out the part of the circle that you will use for the cone. You can take a quarter (for a cone of small diameter, that is, slender), half for the middle and three quarters for the wide).For the Christmas tree, the first two options are more suitable, since the third looks more like a hat or the roof of a house.
- Join the workpiece by gluing the seam.
The neat cone is ready.
How to glue the base
In any of the presented methods for manufacturing a cone, the result is a hollow billet equal to the selected sheet of paper or cardboard. If you are satisfied with this version of the Christmas tree, you can start decorating. However, most often, herringbone cones are not hollow, but have a solid base. It not only gives the workpiece a finished look, but also gives additional strength to the base, which is important, since a decor that has a certain weight will be glued to it and the structure should not fall apart under it.
Work options are as follows:
- If you rolled a cone out of a rectangle, circle the base on the prepared cardboard.
- If you used a tool to level the bottom, use the hole in it as a stencil for the base.
- When working with a template, you can also circle the base of the manufactured cone or calculate the diameter of the circle according to the formula by measuring the circumference (bottom of the cone).
As for gluing parts, with a thermal gun this can be done without additional allowances for gluing, but simply butt-to-head (you connect the thickness of the cone wall with the base circle). If you use ordinary PVA, it is worth considering allowances for gluing, since the strength and setting speed of this composition is less than that of hot-melt adhesive. Allowances can be made both on the base part and on the bottom of the cone. Allowances are best hidden inside the bulk blank.
How to make a paper cone for a Christmas tree big with a photo
If you decide to make an interior Christmas tree, which you plan to put on the floor to decorate the room, then you will have to work a little more with the creation of the frame than for the desktop version. The most important thing for such a cone is strength, therefore, in addition to the cardboard wall, it is worthwhile to provide for frame elements. It can be a wire or a rod made of another material (a wooden stick, for example). He will go through the center of the cone, acting as an axis. It’s good if you fix it firmly to the base.
It is also easy to make additional stiffeners in the form of circles of cardboard of the corresponding diameter, which will be glued along the entire height of the cone at an equal distance.
If you are going to make a cone for a large Christmas tree, a certain difficulty can cause drawing a circle of the appropriate diameter, which cannot be done with an ordinary stationery tool. In this case, you can choose one of the following methods:
- Take a basin or other workpiece of suitable diameter (bucket, mirror, stool, countertop - what is in the household).
- Find the compass that is drawn on the blackboard with chalk, and use the marker.
- Make a drawing tool yourself from the rod, which can be fixed in the center of the circle (stick with a needle or clove), and a writing tool attached on a thread or rope to the top of the axis.
Papier-mâché technique
This section will also teach you how to make paper cones for Christmas trees. Big or small you need a size, in this case it doesn’t matter. The workpiece is strong and solid even without an additional frame. This option is suitable for those who do not have a single dense sheet for making a cone of the appropriate size.
To work with this method, any paper is suitable, even newspaper or from old magazines, however, a base blank is required. You can use a plastic cone from a child’s designer (the original part will not deteriorate and return to its place), plasticine, gypsum, polystyrene. According to one template, you can make a lot of blanks from papier-mâché. Proceed as follows:
- Cut or chop newspapers into small items.
- Wrap the prepared template with plastic wrap and coat the PVA.
- On a dry adhesive, apply a layer of paper pieces.
- Dry the first coat and then apply the second one using the same technology.
- Work this way to the required thickness of the workpiece.
- Cut the resulting shell and remove the original part.
- Install the core bar, if necessary.
- Apply a few more layers to hold the halves together.
All is ready.
You learned how to make a cone out of paper for a Christmas tree. Start by making the base, and then proceed to decorate it.