Balsa Wood Paper Tree

Hey, everyone!

Kelley here, and I’m back with a super simple, yet gorgeous and festive Balsa Wood Paper Tree DIY. For this project, I used the new Balsa Paper Backed Wood that you can purchase here at 12x12 Cardstock Shop. It’s made of real Balsa wood and honestly, it may look difficult to work with, but was a real breeze to cut using my Cricut Maker.

Here are the tools and materials you will need for this wood paper tree:

• Balsa Paper Backed Wood in any color of your choice
• Mod Podge glue
• Foam brush
• Glitter
• Foam cone
• Hot glue gun
• Any simple leaf or pointed oval shape you can find in Cricut Design Space or other program
• Scrap paper and sticky lint roller (to help with glitter clean up)

Now, I stated earlier that this project was cut using my Cricut machine, but the wood paper can EASILY be cut using scissors. If you decide to go this route, remember you’ll need to find or draw and cut a pointed oval to use as a template. Obviously, hand cutting each piece will be more time consuming, but I promise you the final outcome will be worth it!

For those of you who will be using a cutting machine, load your mat and cut out several pointed ovals. How many? Well, the foam cone I used was 4-7/8” x 11-7/8” and I cut three sheets worth of large, medium, and small pointed ovals. I do have a handful of small sizes left over, but I can always save those for another tree or a future project.

Once your shapes are cut, use your foam brush and apply a small amount of Mod Podge to the bottom half of your leaves. Next, sprinkle on your glitter, gently tap off the excess and place to the side to dry.

Make sure to cover your work surface with a scrap piece of paper to help you clean up the glitter bomb that will no doubt accumulate during this DIY! Also, a sticky lint roller is an amazing tool to have for any glitter activity.

After your leaves have dried, use your hot glue gun to adhere each piece onto your foam cone. I overlapped each leaf and did my best to disguise the “seam.”

The largest leaves were placed at the bottom and I gradually transitioned to the smaller ones as I neared the top.

And voila! You have yourself a stunning decorative piece for this holiday season! I love how simple and customizable this project is. There are so many ways you can go about decorating this piece, from the wood paper options, to your glitter color and design. Plus, it doesn’t even look like a craft project!

I hope you decide to give this DIY a chance and if you do, please remember to share with us on Instagram or Facebook. Happy crafting!

-Kelley