A holiday tree in June?  Yes, you can stop laughing; we’ve been through this several times now.  Why not celebrate the entire year with a pretty lit tree inside your home?  It doesn’t have to be big like mine, but it sure makes an impact at 9 feet tall!

S

ince June is all about the beginning of summer and having some freedom to do the things you really love to do, I chose a nautical sailing theme for my June tree.

If you have looked through some of the other projects this month, you may recognize the semaphore flag or signal flag designs.  They were made out of craft foam so they were very inexpensive to create, and I made some coordinating coasters and placemats to finish off the nautical theme.  You check out how to make them in the Craft section of the site.  The only difference between the coasters and the flag ornaments is that I made the ornaments rectangular and the coasters square.  I did punch a hole in the corner of the ornaments so I could use drapery cording to hang them from the tree.

There is not a huge variety of ornaments on this tree because the large sailboats do take up quite a bit of space.  The garland is actual boat line from a boating store, the white Christmas lights are still in use, and there are large red, silver and blue star ornaments I found that have holographic paper on them giving even more sparkle to the tree.

In a close-up of the upper portion of the tree you can see that the tree topper is a captain’s hat.

You can also catch a glimpse of the variety of nautical signal flags I made to give the tree some interest.  I purchased five colors of craft foam, black, white, red, yellow and blue and was able to create any flag I wanted.  Go to http://www.anbg.gov.au/flags/signal-flags.html to see the different designs of the flags.

If you are interested in making some flags of your own, here’s how simple it can be.

Materials List:

1. Pull together all the materials necessary to complete the project.  The items needed are listed below.  The ornaments that I made measured 4” by 6” so figure the amount of foam you will need according to those dimensions.

• Sheets of craft foam in 5 colors
• Foam glue
• Scissors or a paper cutting board
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Plastic triangle if making squares
• Drapery cording
• Hole punch

2. Measure, draw and cut out your 4” by 6” rectangles and then the pieces you will need to create the letters of your choice.  This could be a fun project for you to do with your children because it is fairly easy and they can learn about fractions, subtraction, measuring, etc.

3. Make sure to purchase foam glue.  It seems to work better than regular school glue in holding the foam pieces together.

4. Once your flag has dried, use your hole punch to create that hole in the corner and string through the drapery cording.

Just keep those flags coming and in no time you’ll have enough ornaments for a nautical summer tree.  Or, glue them onto magnets and write secret messages to your family that you leave on the refrigerator!  Glue them to white illustration board and frame them in a black frame for some beautiful summertime artwork.  The ideas are endless as long as you use your imagination.  And summertime is a great time to loosen up and let those creative juices flow.  I hope you have as much fun as I did creating your Tree for all Seasons.  It’s one of the craziest, yet most fun projects I’ve done in a long time!!

Shari

 
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