Felt Kids Christmas Tree Craft

I made this Felt Christmas tree for my kids.  This time of year makes me feel crafty, even if I am often out of my depth.  This craft however was not difficult, even for me!  

I was inspired first by wait-for-it, yes that's right Pinterest.  Then a local friend made one and I was motivated to make it happen.  I bought 1 yard of felt (at Walmart for $3.97) which is enough for 2 trees.    Also a package of mixed color felt sheets (about $3-4), a bottle of glitter glue ($1.97) and more hot glue for my gun.  That's it!  I cut the yard in 1/2, then folded it and cut the tree on one side (I used chalk to rough out what the branches would look like).  You could also just make a big triangle to make it easier.  I hot glued the star and presents onto the tree so they'd be permanent.

Then I made ornaments with the help of my 5 year old.  We embellished them with glitter glue and some extra sequins and beads we found around the house.  I will probably make a few more but we have enough to get started.

After I had the ornaments and tree the tricky part begun, how to put it on the wall.  I didn't want to leave any permanent marks or use anything sharp (like a nail or tack).  I first tried painters tape, which worked initially but the tree was on the floor within a few hours.  The challenge is finding something that will stick to the felt, which pretty much repels anything but itself!  

I then had the brilliant idea of making a surface on the back for adhesive to stick to rather than the felt.  I set about making squares on the back using my hot-glue gun.  About 3 sticks later I had all of these squares.

All the products I tried to hang the tree.

After I had the squares of glue on the back I started trying different non-permanent adhesive products.  The handi-tak squares (nice b/c they're reusable) didn't stick to the glue spots.  The Scotch poster-tape (double sided) worked great at first, it even seemed to stick to the felt by itself but within a few hours the tree was on the floor.  I saved the best for last and used a strip of the Command picture hanging strips at the top of the tree.  The rest of the tree still had the poster tape.  Success!  The heavy part is held by the command and the rest with the scotch.  A day has passed and the tree is still on the wall.  

My 16 month old loves the tree and decorates it whenever she can.  She just lights up with pride when she puts an ornament on, it's the cutest thing!  The 5 year old likes it too and has been making different arrangements each time.  

Priceless!