How to Make a “Tea Bag Fold” Christmas Tree

How to Make A “Tea Bag Fold” Christmas Tree

To make this Christmas tree, you need 3 squares of paper; a 3″ x 3″ square, a 2 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ square, and a 2″ x 2″ square. Card stock will work, but it is much easier to fold paper. Also, you will only see one side of the paper when you are done folding each piece so it does not have to be printed on both sides. In my paper above, the back of the plaid paper is white.

Start with any one of the squares you cut. You are going to make 4 folds. You can either fold it by hand or use a scoring board.

First, fold the square in half. (For this fold, it is easier later if you fold the paper in both directions – fold it once, then open it up and fold it back the other way.)

Unfold it. Turn it a quarter of the way around and fold it in half again. (For this fold also, it is easier later if you fold the paper in both directions – fold it once, then open it up and fold it back the other way.)

Unfold it. Now fold it from corner to corner on a diagonal.

Unfold it. Do the same with the other corners.

When you are done, you should have these folds.

Pinch each of the corners so it looks like this.

You want to push in the sides labeled 1 & 2 in while flattening sides 3 & 4 as shown standing up in the overhead view. (It is easy to push in sides 1 & 2 if you folded the first fold both ways as instructed above.)

This is what it should now look like, lying flat on the table. (I’m including a photo of the printed paper I used on my sample from this point on to make it easier to see the folds.) From this point, it is much easier to work with it lying on the table.

Take the top panel (on either side) and fold it to the center. Look at the third photo before you fold it to see how this fold looks when it is done. (You are lining up the outside, diagonal edge with the middle line.)

Do the same with the other side.

This piece is complete. Do the same with the other two squares you originally cut out. Then arrange them into a tree by tucking the points of each into the slightly smaller piece and attach with a bit of adhesive. Make a trunk from a scrap if desired.