Easy Christmas Crafts: Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos

This Easy Christmas Crafts Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos takes only a few small pieces of fabric, some thread and a short piece of yarn to become a fun and easy Christmas ornament.

You can use tree colored fabric circles or be wild and crazy with mixed and matched colors and prints in the fabric circles.

Let's look at a finished tree.
Easy Christmas Crafts Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos with beads attached
This Easy Christmas Crafts Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos is fun and easy to make. It can hang on a tree or several together can form a garland to hang on a mantel or sideboard.

Easy Christmas Crafts: Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos Materials and Tools:

Eleven fabric circles: one yellow, nine green and one brown (or the colors of your choice) 
Nine beads (optional) 
Thread  
Needle 
Yarn - roughly 10 inches (this used gold metallic yarn) 
Yarn needle to push the yarn through the top circle 
Pencil (not shown) 
Paper circle as pattern - this used a 2-inch circle. You can use a glass or other round object to draw around for the pattern  
Scissors  
Take a look at the simple materials and tools shown here.  These were scraps of fabric from other projects.

If you plan to make several and don't have scraps available, three fabric quarters from the craft store would make quite a few of these little trees.
Easy Christmas Crafts Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos materials and tools

The Steps for How to Make the Easy Christmas Crafts: Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos:

Use a circle template, a compass tool, a round glass or other round object roughly two inches in diameter to make the circle pattern.

Cut one yellow circle for the "star" or top of the Christmas tree. Cut nine green print circles for the tree and one brown print for the base of the tree.

If you want to make a larger tree, make larger circles. A 2-inch circle yields a 1-inch yo yo, and thus a 5-inch high tree.

Increasing the size of the circle to three inches results in a finished tree 7 1/2 inches tall.

The steps remain the same regardless of the size of the circles.
Easy Christmas Crafts Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos cut the circles from the fabric
Thread the needle. Make small running stitches near the edge of the circle. (Click on How to Sew Stitches for a free book.)
Easy Christmas Crafts Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos sew small stitches near the edge
Leave a 2-inch tail of thread at the beginning of the stitches.

This will be used to gather the resulting yo yo.
Easy Christmas Crafts Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos leave long end of thread
Continue the small stitches around the outer perimeter of the circle.
Easy Christmas Crafts Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos sew all around circle
Hold the beginning end of the thread and firmly pull the needle and thread to gather the edge of the fabric circle. 
Easy Christmas Crafts Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos pull ends of thread to gather circle
Holding the thread ends firmly, tie the two ends together in a square knot.

Trim the ends of the thread close to the knot but not close enough to damage the knot.
Easy Christmas Crafts Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos tie knot in thread ends and cut
The yo yo has a smooth surface on the opposite side.
Easy Christmas Crafts Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos finished view of one yo yo
Continue making the yo yos until all eleven are finished.

This picture shows the yo yos in the tree shape ready for the next step of joining them together.
Easy Christmas Crafts Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos make all of the yo yos
Begin connecting each row together. First, thread the needle.

Hold two yo yos with same sides together - either plain side to plain side or gathered side to gathered side.

Sew hidden stitches in each yo yo - two are all that are needed - to hold the yo yos together.
Easy Christmas Crafts Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos begin sewing the yo yos together
This shows the two yo yos joined at one edge.
Easy Christmas Crafts Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos sew a couple of stitches to hold the yo yos together
Continue connecting the yo yos together within each row of this Easy Christmas Crafts Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos.
Easy Christmas Crafts Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos sew each layer together side by side
Next, begin connecting the rows together.

The yo yos should be off-set.

Use hidden stitches in two places (see red arrows) to connect the top yo yo to the next row of two yo yos.
Easy Christmas Crafts Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos begin sewing the rows together
Add the third row of yo yos with an off set to fit the circles together as if you're stacking round objects on top of each other.
Easy Christmas Crafts Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos add the third row
Add the fourth row of yo yos.
Easy Christmas Crafts Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos add the fourth row
The last row or bottom of the tree should be placed in the middle of the fourth row.

This circle forms the base of the tree.
Easy Christmas Crafts Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos add the base of the tree
Turned over, the tree displays the gathered side of the craft yo yos.
Easy Christmas Crafts Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos the gathered side of the yo yos
Thread the yarn needle with the yarn for the hanging loop.

Push the yarn needle through the top of the top circle to form the hanging loop.
Easy Christmas Crafts Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos add the yarn for the loop
Pull the yarn even, tie a knot in the ends and trim the yarn.
Easy Christmas Crafts Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos tie a knot in the yarn and clip the ends
This view shows the Easy Christmas Crafts Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos hanging on an ornament hanger with the gathered side to the front.

This is an interesting and pretty view.

I used white thread for its contrast in the photos, but a matching thread would be almost invisible.
Easy Christmas Crafts Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos hanging on stand showing gathered side
This picture shows the opposite side with its plain circles.
Easy Christmas Crafts Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos hanging on stand showing plain side
Now, if you want, you can embellish each "tree" circle with beads as decorative ornaments.
Easy Christmas Crafts Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos hanging on stand showing addition of beads
Simple materials and simple tools makes this a fun and easy project. One can be completed quickly. If you want to make several, this project can easily be a start and stop project over several evenings.

Have fun!

The inexpensive and Easy Christmas Crafts Christmas Tree of Craft Yo Yos can be fun for families, for church groups and for senior centers.
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