Antique Post Card DIY Christmas Trees

My mother used to collect vintage and antique postcards.  She gave me a box full of them about five years ago.  Most of the dates on them are from the early 1900's.  I always figured I would use them on some craft project eventually, I just didn't know what or when.  This week I decided to finally craft with them.  I came up with the idea for these adorable antique postcard Christmas trees.  After a little trial and error, I figured out how to make them and they were actually quite simple to do!  The best part is that they didn't cost me a cent...  I used items I already had around the house :)

I started by creating cones with some scrap-booking paper and packaging tape. I used two pieces of 12" x 12" paper and put them into a cone shape and then taped the edges.  I wanted the cones to be taller than a single piece of paper would make, so I shaped the first piece and taped it, and then put the second piece inside and shaped it to the first giving it extra height.  Then I added a cut piece to the open area that remained.  I cut the bottom level and then I made a second cone that was slightly shorter.

  

My cones aren't very pretty, in fact not at all, but they are just for the base so it didn't much matter what they looked like.  I ended up taping the entire exterior of each cone to give them extra strength.

I cut each of the old postcards into strips and then curled them around a pen to give them a curved look.  As I cut the cards I tried to keep stamps and postal markings in tact so they could be read when looking at the trees.

After they were curled I started from the bottom up, one row at a time...  I used packaging tape to tape each piece to the cone. 

Below is the first tree as I finished it.  Notice how you can see the stamps and postal marks.  There are dates from as early as 1905 to about 1915 on this tree.  All of the stamps were one cent back then.  

The second tree I decided to give a different look.  I folded each of the cut strips in half and stapled them.  This gave them some thickness.  Again I made sure to show the stamps and postal markings.  Row by row I attached them with the packaging tape.  I used packaging tape because it is much stronger and stickier than Scotch tape!  This second tree was the easiest to make.  It didn't need near as many rows to I made it in about 15 minutes.

In the next picture you can read some of the writing on the cards, and see the stamps up close and postal dates.  

The stars on top I cut out of postcards too.  I cut two sides for each and I glued them to the top of each tree.

I love how they both turned out.  I am not sure where I am going to display them in the house yet.  I'm thinking maybe the coffee table is best.  There is so much history on the 100 year old post cards that they make for a great conversation piece!

Until next time,

Happy Decorating!

Diana