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Homemade Christmas Music Tree Ornament

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We recently read the most lovely Christmas book as a family. Have you ever read The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Houston?  It is a great story. It inspired my project today, a Christmas music tree ornament. This is part of the 10 Days of Kid-Made Christmas Ornaments series. See more details at the end of the post.  (This post is sponsored by Elmer’s. All thoughts and ideas are my own, but I am being compensated and received free product in exchange for this post.)

In the book, the family is in charge of bringing the tree to the church that Christmas for the holiday event. The daughter and her father go out to choose the tree early in the year and mark it with a red ribbon from her hair so they can find the tree again. The father then goes away to the war. He is supposed to make it back in time for Christmas, but when it is time to bring the tree to the church, he is not there.

The daughter and her mother climb the mountain to find the tree. They sing Christmas carols the whole time to bring them joy through the difficult situation. They leave the tree at the church during the night and everyone thinks it is a miraculous appearance! There are many more lovely details, like the appearance of the father at the end of the story. You should definitely give it a read with your kids!

Supplies for the Christmas Music Tree Ornament:

Cardboard
Sheet Music
Wooden Skewer
Red Embroidery Thread (or ribbon)
Elmer’s Glue-All
Exact-o Knife & Shapes Template or Scissors
Cutting Mat
Water Color Paints

My Christmas music tree ornament is made with layered cardboard and Christmas music. I had this box that had red plaid printed on it and thought it was perfect to add into this ornament, but you could do it with regular cardboard as well. We printed some old fashioned looking Christmas sheet music by just doing an image search online.

I loved using the x-acto shape templates to help me cut varying sizes of squares out of paper and cardboard. My older daughter could help with this step. I cut two pieces of cardboard for each size of square and 8-10 pieces of paper.

Once they were cut, we painted the back edges of the music with green watercolor paint. This also curled the edges of the paper a bit making it have a rougher more tree-like look. The kids loved doing this!

Then we used the skewer and the glue. We started by layering a large square of cardboard and some of the squares of paper. We flipped them every other while layering so you see some green and some sheet music. I did the same with the red cardboard.

We added dabs of glue on the cardboard layers so they stay put on the stick. Continue layering and moving to the smaller sized squares to make it look like a tree.

The last layer of cardboard, I cut in a star shape and glued it in place, too.

Then, to go with the story, I tied a red string on top in a bow shape and to hang it on the tree.

The kids and I were really pleased with how it turned out!  It is so fun to craft with the kids.  It is also great to have a reminder of a beautiful and touching story that we read together.

The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree ornament

 

This is part of the 10 Days of Kid-Made Christmas Ornament Series hosted by Mama Miss.  Stop by to see the other book-inspired ornaments! Today is day 10 and these are the other 4 participants today:

Kitchen Floor Crafts– Book: Santa Claus and the Three Bears
True Aim– Book: Chipmunk Charity
Arty Crafty Kids – Book: Stick Man
The Life of Jennifer Dawn– Book: Coat of Many Colors

 

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