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Ribbon Christmas Trees

Turn basic ribbon into a beautiful tabletop decoration for the holidays with this simple how-to.



  • Velvet ribbon (22mm or 16mm wide)
  • Fabric scissors
  • Gold cardstock
  • Craft knife or paper cutter
  • Adhesive tape roller or fabric glue
  • Hot-glue gun and hot-glue sticks


  1. Step 1

    To create each tier of the tree, cut ribbon (22mm or 16mm wide) with fabric scissors and cut cardstock strips (3/4-inch wide for 22mm ribbon or 1/2-inch wide for 16mm ribbon) with craft knife or paper cutter according to the following specifications:Tier 1: 18 6-inch piecesTier 2: 15 5.5-inch piecesTier 3: 12 5-inch piecesTier 4: 12 4.5-inch piecesTier 5: 12 4-inch piecesTier 6: 12 3.5-inch piecesTier 7: 12 3-inch piecesTier 8: 12 2.5-inch piecesTier 9: 10 2-inch piecesTier 10: 8 1.5-inch piecesTier 11: 6 1-inch piecesTopper: 3 1-inch piecesTip: For a shorter tree, start the process at tier #5.

  2. Step 2

    Adhere each length of cardstock to the back of each corresponding length of ribbon with adhesive tape or fabric glue.

  3. Step 3

    Bring ends of each piece of paper-backed ribbon together and secure with hot glue to form teardrop shape. Repeat for each piece of ribbon in each tier.

  4. Step 4

    For each tier of ribbon loops, hot-glue pointed ends of each teardrop-shaped loop together to form a rosette. For the topper, hot-glue the three 1-inch loops together to form a half-rosette.

  5. Step 5

    Once glue has dried, hot-glue each rosette at its center on top of the others in order of decreasing size to form the tree. Glue topper on last. Pinch loops to form pointed branches.

The Martha Stewart Show, December 2010