I love setting up building challenges for the boys, especially with Legos. I had some peel’n stick building block baseplates by Creative QT and thought it would be fun to make a Christmas tree for the kids to build on. It has been a great holiday project that keeps on going. I would love to share with you how I did it, what we used, and how I started out wrong.
But first, a little about these peel’n stick base plates. They have construction grade adhesive on the back that makes the 10’x10″ base plates great for all kinds of creative projects. I started out sticking a plate to our glass door in our living room, since I thought that may be a good spot for the building tree. It is where our family gathers and next to our real tree. I quickly realized this adhesive is no joke, and rethought the permanency of this project. I peeled off the plate with some force. No harm done. I grabbed an old white board from the garage and proceeded with the project. This project can be scaled up or down to any size, but I’ll tell you how we did it.
What you will need:
- Nine 10″x10″ green peel’n stick base plates from Creative QT
- One tan 10″x10″ peel’n stick base plate
- Carpet Cutter Knife
- wooden star for tracing (optional)
- black Sharpie marker
- ruler
- Legos to build with
- White Board (optional surface)
How to do it:
- I stuck one of the base plates on the bottom center of the white board (dry erase board) and built around it, with out sticking the rest.
- I secured the plates together using flat Legos.
- I flipped the rest of the plates over all together and numbered them.
- I drew the triangle shape using my marker and a ruler.
- I used the carpet knife and ruler to cut along my lines on a cutting board. (Be very careful when using carpet cutting blades, because they are super sharp! The prep of this project is an adult job. The build later, is for all ages.)
- Once the plastic is well scored with the blade, it can be broken along the scored plastic.
- Flip over and attach to your chosen surface.
I also cut out a star to go on top of the tree using a wooded star as a template, and the same method as above.
The kids have been working on the tree ever since. We have a Lego Advent Calendar that the boys have been building everyday with to count the days down to Christmas. They cleverly decided to try to turn all of the Lego creations from that, into ornaments to go on the “building tree”. The kids have been adding lights and ornaments to the tree, and even gifts to go under the tree.
I brought one of my classes in to see the tree, and they had fun getting in on the ornament making. Maybe after the holidays I will add a photo to this post of the finished tree, since I only see this project continuing to grow.
Thanks for reading. -Amber