Kanzashi Christmas Tree

Congratulation to the 3 winners who’ve won the Green, Red, and White trees during the Kanzashi Christmas Tree Giveaway Draw recently!!! For those who didn’t win or have missed the boat, please don’t be disappointed, here is the tutorial with the complete step-by-step photos and videos to guide you all the way to make the Kanzashi Christmas Tree!!!

Though it looks tedious if you get your hands on it, it is pretty simple!!! Try it out!!!!

The Kanzashi Christmas Tree is made from 2 types of Kanzashi fold (or TsuNami) petals, round tip, and pointy tip. Watch these 2 petals making videos which I made to show you how to fold them. Perhaps you need to practice first before you can get a perfect fold for a start. Trust me, it is not as difficult as you may anticipate 🙂

Kanzashi Christmas Tree

Pattern: download here

Christmas Tree and Pot

Material:
1. Fabric glue or good craft glue
2. Sharp point Tweezer
3. Fabric for the cone base
4. Fabrics to fold the Kanzashi petals
5. Matching color sewing thread and needle
6. Cardboard for cone
7. Cardboard for the base of the cone

Watch “How-To-Make” Video

Fold Round Tip Kanzashi Petal

Watch on Youtube

Fold Pointy Tip Kanzashi Petal

Watch on Youtube

Gather and prepare the material as listed above.

Prepare the cone:
Roll the cone and glue it at the glue line. You might need to place 1 or 2 tapes to secure the joints before the glue dries.
Clip the curve of the base and fold it up as shown and apply glue on that area.

Insert the base into the bottom of the cone.
Glue the fabric to the base. Clip the curve and glue it up to the cone.
Make a small hole at the center of the base. You need this to poke through the floral wire later.

Get ready your Kanzashi petals, both round tip, and pointy tip.
Arrange them in an alternate sequence, round, pointy, round, pointy and so on…
Apply glue on the 1st row. Raise the cone by placing a stand, it will be easy for you to work on.
Dip the petal base on a pool of glue so that it has enough glue to adhere to the cone.

Start gluing the petals on the cone row by row, make sure the whole petal base touches the cone. Follow the numbers of petal required for each row as instructed in the pattern sheet.
Rotate the stand as you go on. Adjust the position of the petal if needed.

A close-up view showing the alignment of the petals and the base.

Top view: after completing the first row.

Continue to work upward row by row.
Side view: after completing 5 rows of big petals.

Side view: after completing another 5 rows of small petals. Reserved the last row for final assembly.

Top view.

Prepare the pot of the Christmas tree while waiting for the glue on the petals to dry or at least semi-dry. You can skip this part if you can find any alternative pot to substitute it.
Material:
1. Tube 30mm height (I used shuttlecock tube which is about 65mm diameter)
2. A circle base (size: outer diameter of the tube) which I have glued the floral wire on.
3. A circle top with a small hole at the center. (the photo showed 2 but you need only 1)
4. A small cable tie
5. A small bell
6. A short length of ribbon (about 300mm)
7.A short length of paper ribbon 2.5 times the circumference of the tube.

Assemble the pot by gluing the base and the top to the tube.
Cut the paper ribbon into half.
Open/unwrap one of the paper ribbons as shown, wrap it around the pot and glue it.
Glue the unopened paper ribbon at the top edge of the pot.
Cut off extra paper ribbon at the joint.

Tie the cable-tie 15mm above the top of the pot. Apply some glue to secure it.
Tie a ribbon and sew the bell on it, glue it to the pot.
Apply some glue on top of the cable-tie.
Option (left): You can embellish the pot by putting some dry wood.

Now, slowly insert the Christmas tree through the floral wire.
Apply some glue at the tip of the tree.
Continue with the petals attachment for the last row. The top half of the petal should touch the floral wire.

Cut off the floral wire 10mm above the tip of the Christmas Tree.
Apply glue and insert a star on it.
You are ready to decorate your Christmas tree with some beads and bead garland.

Place a circle of bead garland at the 1st row of the Christmas tree.
Glue the first and last beads onto the petals. Secure it with pins.
Apply some glues on the next few beads to secure the garland better.
Cut some beads from the extra garland that you left and glue it on the petal randomly to decorate it.

Let the glue dry by leaving it overnight or as long you can.
Done!!! Now you can decorate your table with the Kanzashi Christmas Tree you made for this holy season 🙂