Paper Christmas tree

I don't have a Christmas tree currently (and no real reason to get one), but I wanted a little holdiay decor.  I was also cleaning out things under my bed and ran across my scrapbook paper stash and thought of this idea. I didn't need to buy anything new to make this, so that's my kind of budget friendly decor!*

I used a 2" circle punch to punch out hundreds of circles out of green (or mostly green) paper.

Then I drew a Christmas tree (just a tall triangle) on some brown shipping paper and it was time to glue! I recommend a fun Christmas movie to watch while you work.

I did the outline first and then went back and filled in. You want to start from the bottom and work your way up - just put a dab of glue on the top of the circle so that the bottom and sides can curl up later. 

A glue gun makes this pretty fast. I'm sure I would've been highly annoyed if I was fiddling with a glue stick or some other kind of messier/longer drying/harder to get out glue.

glue. glue. glue. I didn't make a pattern with the different papers, just random.

At the top I used a 2" scalloped circle punch and some gold glitter paper for the star.

Then I trimmed the excess brown paper off from the sides of the tree and, voila! Tree! I took a look at it and filled in any bare spots with extra circles. I very slightly curled up the bottoms of the circles to give it a more dimensional look. 

I hung it on the wall with a few command poster strips. (It's heavy!)

And then the "trunk" is one of the scrap sides of the brown shipping paper I trimmed off earlier rolled up into a very narrow tree trunk. 

Added a little elf climbing the tree - and, It's Christmas in this house!

Some of the paper has shiny/metallic parts on it or glitter - and it really does catch the light to give that illusion of a light when you walk by it.

Bonus? I can roll it up and keep it and use it another season. :) 

* If you don't have a circle punch - you'll probably want to buy or borrow that in order to make this (though you could cut a few hundred circles by hand . . ). Alternatively, I bet triangles (or squares/diamonds) would also look cool and be easier to cut without having to buy a punch.  If you don't have the brown paper - use any kind of sturdy wrapping paper you have - or piece together pieces of other paper.  You may see a little of whatever the paper is on the finished product depending on how much overlap you have - so just keep that in mind. :)