Notice. Wonder. Make. Grinch Trees

It’s that time of year when snowmen come to life and reindeer come out to play. And the tree? Well, a little crooked, but we can make that work. If you haven’t seen Grinch Trees all over your Pinterest feed or community artboard, these fun crafts are easy, customizable, and unique to everyone!

This series of fun educational activities and projects aim to help you cultivate curiosity and creativity in your children using arts-based learning, inspired by the same learning techniques and activities used in the award-winning ConocoPhillips Hub for Inspired Learning program. Each activity is designed to be simple, for you to do in your own home and immediate neighbourhood.

Supplies

• Wire cutters

• Small pruning shears

• Floral wet foam

• Small bucket/container with plastic insert (approx. size: 6” tall with 7” opening)

• Small decorations for tree (about 12 – 25 items. Think about scale!) 

• Beads or small garland

• One medium Christmas tree ball

• Wired wood picks 

• Floral wire 22 gauge (Michaels)

• Wire coat hanger

• Fresh Cedar

Step 1

· Cut floral foam to fit into your container

· Soak the floral foam and leave the excess water in the container

· Bend your hanger into a “J” shape. This will be the support for the cedar branches

· Place the wire into your foam with the curved “J” part as the top

Step 2

· Take your cedar branches and stick into the foam around the wire

· Tip! Watch that your wire and branches are not too tall as it could cause the container to tip

Step 3

· Once the branches are in wrap the wire around the base of the branches. Tie the wire tight.

· Continue wrapping and shaping the cedar branches with the wire.

· Once you have shaped and wrapped the curve, you can tie the wire off.

· You should now have the shape of the tree

Step 4

· Using your wood wire picks start to assemble the decorations

· Place decorations on the tree

· Using a wood pick and your medium Christmas tree ball, place the stick up into the tip of the curved area of your tree

View fullsize

View fullsize

Step 5

· Using the left-over cedar, cut into shorter pieces to place around the base of the tree

Step 6

· Now, wrap the tree in your garland. I use the wood wire picks to anchor the garland at the base and tip of the tree

Step 7

· Place any left-over or special decorations at the base of the tree

Ta-da! Grinch tree! Finished creating your masterpiece? We’d love to see it! Tag us on social media at @yycarts or on Twitter at @LearnatAC.