Shortly after moving to Boston, I found Elise's handmade holiday ribbon tree craft project. We were still organizing post-move, so I tucked the idea away for the next year. When I pulled out our Christmas boxes again, I was greeted with my handwritten reminder: make ribbon trees. I searched high and low for styrofoam cones with no luck; true craft stores accessible via public transportation are hard to come by in the Boston area and I was opposed to paying more for shipping than the product cost. I resigned myself to putting it off another year, and once again packed away my note in our Christmas bins.
At some point that following year, styrofoam cones showed up at Blick, which I snatched immediately. Then I couldn't find cheap ribbon in colors that matched our non-traditional color scheme. So while we were home last Christmas, I traveled to no less than three different craft departments to assemble a curated selection of plum, apple green, and champagne ribbon. These spools traveled back to Boston to be united with the waiting styrofoam cones. But then it was January, and Ian has an aversion to Christmas out of season, so I tucked my supplies away for eleven more months.
Which brings us to the present, three years after promising myself I would do this project. And while it took me a long time to gather supplies, crafting the trees went much faster. I did half of the first tree at [REUNION]'s Black-Friday-alternative craft fest, and finished the pair while catching up on the holiday episodes of Suburgatory.
I used seven different ribbons of varying shades, materials, textures, and widths, and I love the way they look together. It's a simple project and Elise's tutorial was easy to follow. My only note is to make sure you're slightly overlapping the edges of the ribbon loops. If you neatly align ribbon edges you'll end up with styrofoam peeking through (I redid my first tree to fix this problem). I haven't added a button to the top, as I'm trying to figure out how I can make little star toppers. Suggestions welcome!
Verdict: cathartic activity with delightful results.