How To Make Special DIY Paper Christmas Trees With Maps

My mantle is full of DIY and upcycled tabletop Christmas trees. There are felt Christmas trees made with old sweaters, Denim DIY Christmas trees made with old jeans and even some repurposed China plate trees. I thought it would be fun to add some DIY paper Christmas trees to this collection.

Most paper Christmas trees are made with old books. As I love crafting with maps so much and have quite a stash, I made my DIY paper Christmas trees out of old maps rather than books.

Old maps are a very affordable craft paper. You can pick up old maps from charity/thrift shops cheaply or even from elderly relatives for free. This, for me, often works out much cheaper than if I bought new craft paper from a store.

Also, I find that many old maps are printed in festive colours. The roads are often in red, rural areas coloured green and all printed on a white background. This makes them suited for making map Christmas trees.

These trees are straightforward to make; you could even get the kids involved with this one. Also, making the DIY paper Christmas trees out of maps of your favourite places will make them even more special.

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What You Need To Make Map Trees

OId road maps – try thrift stores or friends and family for out-of-date old road maps.
Rotary cutter and mat. Or paper guillotine
Ruler
Gorilla glue contact adhesive clear
Wooden cotton reel
Velvet ribbon in red or gold
Gold paper or gold-leafed paper, star punch and toothpick.

How To Make DIY Paper Christmas Trees With Maps

Step 1: When making a DIY paper Christmas tree with maps instead of books, you must first turn the map into a book.

To do this, open out the road map. Then, cut up the map along the fold lines using either a rotary cutter, ruler, mat, or a paper guillotine.

Step 2: Next, stack the cut map sheets together, ensuring they all face the same way. Then cut a small strip of paper about 1″ in width and the same length as the map sheets.

Place glue along the edges of the stacked map sheets and on one side of the paper strip. Wrap the paper strip around the edge of the map sheets to create a spine. Hold the map book spine in place with pegs whilst the glue dries.

Step 3: Once the glued spine has dried, the map book can be turned into a DIY paper Christmas tree.

Place the map book face down. Take the top right corner of the first page and fold it towards the centre (as in the picture below).

Step 4: Next, with the same page, fold the map in half again along the diagonal towards the centre. As you make the second fold, you will notice that the bottom of the map sticks out from the rest of the book. Simply fold and tuck this under.

Step 5: Carry on folding all the map pages similarly. Once finished, the map book should look like a map Christmas tree. Glue the two end pages together to maintain that DIY paper Christmas tree shape.

Step 6: To finish these DIY paper Christmas trees, wrap the velvet ribbon around the cotton reel. Then glue the cotton reel to the base of the map of Christmas trees to provide a base for the trees.

Step 7: For a final touch to map Christmas trees, make a star topper. Simply punch some star shapes out of gold paper. Glue the stars to the top of a toothpick. Then, slip the toothpick into the top of the paper Christmas trees.