I was inspired by either random creativity or divine procrastination yesterday to turn a stack of office DWR catalogs and expired In Touch magazines into festive Christmas trees. The project took me under ten minutes to complete. Since the holiday deadline for ordering from that stack of catalogs laying on your kitchen counter has passed, I highly suggest recycling them with this easy DIY. You can use any catalog or gossip mag so long as it has a saddle-stich binding. (Do you like my Apple tree topper?)

What You Need

  • One catalog or gossip mag per tree
  • Scissors or X-acto knife
  • A marker (optional)
  • Around seven paper clips

To learn how to make this perennial tree, read more

Here are the steps:


  1. Using a marker, draw the outline of a profile of a Christmas tree on your magazine, as shown. (Although, I skipped this step on my first try, and it turned out okay.)



  2. Take a small chunk of pages in your catalog, and cut along the outline of your tree.



  3. Continue cutting the pages in chunks, until you've cut through the entire catalog.



  4. Now, take about four or five pages and paper clip them together at the base of the tree, as shown, starting with the front and back covers of the catalog.



  5. Continue clipping the pages together, until all of them have been grouped together. The point of doing this is so that the tree will stand upright on its own. You may have to burnish or fold the pages on their "hinges" so they don't just flop to one side.



  6. Now, stand your tree upright, and voilà!