Yo-yo Christmas Trees are Easy and So Much Fun
Use Scraps to Make Yours in Any Festive Color Combo!
Yo-yos in decreasing sizes are slipped over dowels to create these sweet little trees. They are charming in just about any color and will make fun additions to your holiday decor. They are also lovely gifts, and a great use of scraps.
The trees can be short and squat or tall and narrow depending on the size and number of the yo-yos. Cut them close in size and use several for a narrow tree. Or use fewer yo-yos with a greater difference between the size of each yo-yo circle for a wide, short tree.
Image from Kiwi at Heart.
Use a protractor to create circle templates for the yo-yos (or purchase a pattern mentioned below). Make one yo-yo of each consecutive size, then cut a small slit in the smooth side in order to slide the yo-yo onto the dowel.
Trees made by scrapthat, found on Etsy.
Vary the height of the trees by varying the length of the dowels and number of yo-yos used. Find a cute star to affix to the top of each one. You’ll find many star ideas at a craft store or cut some from felt.
Trees by Esparanza from Mi Hogar de Patchwork.
Use a wooden thread spools for the tree stands (make sure the dowel fits into it) or look around the craft store for other ideas.
A free tutorial is available for trees in two sizes (shown above) from Kiwi at Heart. The photo tutorial does a great job of showing you how to make these trees start to finish, including how to make yo-yos.
Measurements are provided in centimeters and millimeters.
Convert centimeters to inches here.
Convert millimeters to inches here.
The following tutorial, for the tree pictured above, is from Amy Power’s Inspired Ideas Christmas 2010, pages 143-145.
You can view the magazine online, using the left and right arrows to scroll through the pages. Look for the big + sign in the lower right corner when mousing over the page. Click that to increase the size of a page for easier reading (you can drag the page up or down, left or right once enlarged).
If you prefer working from a pattern, one is available for the sweet little trees pictured above. Notice that these have been made into ornaments with the addition of cords threaded through the star buttons. The finished trees are 3″ x 4″.
There’s also a pattern available for the pretty tree above. It’s 14″ tall
Amazon has a nice selection of wooden spools available. They can be used as is, painted or wrapped with a strip of fabric or ribbon secured with a bit of glue. Be sure to choose those that fit the size of the dowel you plan to use. Look over the selection of wooden spools here.
