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Glittery Christmas Tree Cones DIY

Kylie

Glittery, sparkly colorful Christmas tree cones are a stunning mantle centerpiece! Easily made with poster board, craft paint, sequins and GLITTER!

This year, for the first time in my adult life, I have a fireplace mantle to decorate!

I knew exactly what I wanted to do… rainbow Christmas tree cones, inspired by the colorful A Kailo Chic Life. Surprisingly, she doesn’t have a similar tutorial for this. But I know she’d love it!

Rainbow Christmas Tree Cones

I already had a few of these glittery cones that I had picked up at Hobby Lobby or Joanns a few years ago, probably. But I wanted the full rainbow!

Rainbow Christmas Tree Cones DIY

I filled in my rainbow with orange, gold, purple and a lighter shade of green and blue. I love the pastel rainbows, so I didn’t use red. But if your decor is more traditional, red would look great!

All of our Christmas decorations are wild colors, and I love it. You can see some more of my “merry and bright” holiday crafts on my round up of colorful DIY Christmas Decorations. The bright colors are so fun, especially when they’re in rainbow order!

Easy Rainbow Glittery Christmas Tree Cones DIY

Check out my tutorial for how to make this Ornament Wreath.

How to Make Glittery Christmas Tree Cones

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These trees are easy peasy, but messy messy! Such is life with glitter. They are made with a posterboard cone, with acrylic craft paint base, and topped with sequins and glitter!

I am no rocket scientist, so cutting and shaping cones was hard for my brain! So I google how to make cones, and saw a few techniques. I wanted the very skinny cones, so I had to modify things a bit.

I had the best success with using a quarter of a circle. Basically from the corner of the poster, hold a piece of string. On the other end of the string, wrap around a pencil and then draw an arc from edge to edge. Like a homemade compass.

How to make a cone for decorative trees

Most of mine are kinda mangled, but they work! I just twisted them together as best I could, and then used clear tape to secure them. They’re fiiiiine. The sequins and glitter compensate for any imperfections.

If you are making a bunch of them and don’t want to bother with the poster board, you can also buy cones from Amazon or craft stores. You won’t have quite the variation in sizes like you would with handmade cones, but whatever floats your boat!

This would be such a fun project for a girls night!

Tips for Using Glitter

To get a truly sparkly, chunky glitter effect on these trees, its best to use a few different sizes of glitter. I used small sequins, a chunky glitter and a fine glitter.

You need a nice thick layer of glue. I used Elmers School glue and then used a foam brush to spread it around evenly. While its still wet, sprinkle on the biggest sequins, then continue with the next largest size glitter, all the way down to the fine stuff.

How to use Glitter

Its like that time management object lesson, start with the big rocks in the jar, and then fill in with the rice and sand, and volia everything fits.

But glitter is more fun!

Where to find sequins and glitter

There’s not a “sequins” section in craft stores, typically they’re tucked into one or more other sections. I’ve found them in the scrapbook stuff, sewing section, jewelry section and also the glitter/kids craft area.

You do not want a mixed bag of sequins (can you imagine sorting them out? Hard pass.), but you do need multiple colors, so look for a variety pack, where the colors are separated into their own baggies like this set from Michaels, or this box of sequins from Amazon with compartments.

For the chunky glitter, you can get them in the little baggies or tubes, but I’d look for a nice container with multiple sections (like sprinkles come in). I have this one from Michaels.

My favorite fine glitter is the sets of 12 or 24. We use glitter a lot in this house! We put it in our homemade playdough, and of course the girls use it when they make slime. This 28 pack of extra fine glitter from Michaels is awesome. This set of fine glitter from Amazon looks great too!

2019 Update:I found the most amazing pots of chunky glitter at Michaels! It already contains a variety of shapes/sizes in each of the rainbow colors, so it is PERFECT for this project! Plus, the bigger container makes it easier to pour excess glitter back in. I am adding them all to my glitter collection for sure.

Instructions on how to make glittery Christmas tree cones

Supplies

Poster board or card stock, tape (or pre-made paper mache cones)
Acrylic craft paint (I like this variety pack)
Foam Brushes (heres a cheap pack of 25 foam brushes on Amazon)
Elmers glue or Mod Podge
sequins
chunky glitter
fine glitter (or these awesome pots of various sized glitter)

How to make a glittery Christmas tree cone - supplies needed

Instructions

1. Shape the cones.

Good luck.

hahahaha

Try this method for making cones. Or whatever you can google or figure out. I made a large scale compass and used quarter circles to make cones (see above). They’re slightly wobbly, but whatever. Precision is not my strong suit.

Or you can buy paper mache cones ready to go.

How to make a glittery Christmas tree cone - with posterboard

2. Paint the cones with acrylic craft paint and let dry. Foam brushes make it easy!

Glittery Christmas Tree Cone DIY

3. Coat cones with glue. I have used Elmers glue and Mod Podge and it works great. Spray adhesive is also a good option. Hurry to the next step, you want to work quickly before the glue dries!

Glittery Christmas Tree Cones DIY

4. While wet, sprinkle on sequins. You may have to spread them around a bit with the tip of your finger.

Easy Glittery Christmas Tree Cones DIY

5. Next quickly sprinkle on chunky glitter while glue is still wet.

Easy Glitter Christmas Tree Cones DIY

6. Finish with fine glitter and let it dry completely. Tap off any extra glitter or sequins.

Easy and Colorful Glittery Christmas Tree Cones DIY

That’s it! They’ll continue to shed glitter and sequins for a bit, but you can brush off any loose bits to minimize the mess on your mantle.

How to make easy glittery Christmas Tree Cones

I sure love the rainbow effect! But it would be stunning in a muted metallic ombre, with champagne, silver, white gold, gold and rose gold. Or just a fun combination of red, bright green and emerald green. Or just shades of green. Gosh that would be be pretty!

Rainbow Christmas Tree Cones - Bright and Colorful Christmas Decor

I love seeing your completed projects, tag me @thehowtomom or use #thehowtomomcrafts on IG so I can tell you what a great job you did!

How to make glittery Christmas tree cones - easy!

Make Your Own Beautiful Living Succulent Wreath Centerpiece! Complete video course by Jeannine Romero now available through Skillshare.