Uploaded December 2016 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago

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DIY wood Christmas tree - How to make

It is mid-winter and and what better than to get out loads of twinkly light to celebrate the darkest part of the year...for the northern hemisphere!

I was inspired to make this 'twinkly light' DIY wood Christmas tree by the great YouTube site 'Inspire to make', check out their video as well, youtube.com/watch?v=sfS9hawIzog.
They inspired me! to make one for my wife as an early Christmas present.

I wanted this tree to have some of the eleemnts of the projects that I have made this year, re-using materials that were left over from some of the projects.

0:02 Prepare the materials
I decided to use up the off cut ply from the making of 'Sketchup Rob' for the Scaffold Board Shed video
youtu.be/ayeNV4fqFiM
This ply was old and dirty and already had some over spray paint on it.

Lay out the ply and I layed over the spray stencils that I had made this year in a random fashion with some off cuts of wood and sawdust spread around...to achieve a slightly grungy feel to the ply.
Liberally spray different colours moving the stencils around a bit.

0:11 Cut up the ply
Cut the ply in long strips.
I cut a bunch of strips at 100mm wide keeping 2 for the sides of the tree and the rest to be cut again at 45mm for the front planking.

0:18 Spray again
The side strips I sprayed with number stencils to represent time...
...and the thinner front strips then had large and small dots randomly sprayed on

0:38 Cut strips to length
The tree dimensions are about 520mm high and 460mm wide at the widest point.
Cut the front strips to over length.
Drop them on the floor and toss around to mix them up well as you want to achieve a random arrangement of dots.
Place on the bench and shuffle until happy with the layout.
Cut a couple shorter strips for the bottom 'tub' shape.

0:55 Cut out shape
Make up a paper pattern to your desired shape and size.
Lay on top of the strips and mark of the shape.
Cut the strips to shape...I used a cross cut though a hand saw works as well.

1.01 Back board
Cut out the DIY wood Christmas tree shape from some ply of OSB and cut out the inner shape leaving about 25mm as a glue area.
Add wood glue to this board and clamp the front strips to the backing board.

1:12 Sides
Cut the side pieces to length with lots of mitre cuts.
Cut some thin strips about 25mm wide to give a back box for the lights wiring.
Glue and pin these to the inside of the side pieces.
Nail the sides in place with some wood glue.

1:39 Lights
Get a set of Christmas tree lights, I used some warm white LED Christmas tree lights with 50 bulbs.
Using the dots of the front strips as placement for the lights, their pattern is random and will give a great effect, drill a hole the diameter of the bulbs in the centre of 50 of the dots. The bulbs want to poke through a bit at the front.
Make sure that your holes positions don't exceed the length between the tree lights you have.
Poke them through from the back, cut a slot in the bottom side of the bottom 'tub' shape for the wire to come out.
Hot glue the back of the lights in position so that they are secure.
Switch on to make sure all is working well...and to admire the beauty of your work.

2:07 Back
Choose a sheet for the back..I had a 3mm thin MDF scrap with an old architectural plan glued to it that was perfect to use.
Lay the paper cut out onto the board, spray around the edge [or mark with a pencil!]
And cut it out.
Drill a nice big hole near the top in the centre if you would like to hang it on a wall.
Pin it in position.

2:17 Glamour shots!
Switch on and admire your handy work.

And my wife loves it!
...early present so it would get used in the dark weeks up to mid-winter.

Wishing you all where ever you are and how ever you celebrate...a great Mid-Winter.

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The funky music for this video 'Aces High - Funkorama' is from that great provider of free to use music for YouTubers Kevin MacLeod, check out his sounds...
Aces High - Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100763
Artist: incompetech.com

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