Introduction: How to Make Your Cats Love You

About: I am into building almost everything. As long as I am working with my hands I am happy. I am looking forward to learning how to create jewelry, and displays hopefully using all recycled materials.

Does your cat love to scratch anything and everything? Well, time to make your furry friend the best thing of their life. A cat tree scratcher!!!

Step 1: Cat Tree Scratcher

The materials you will need :

  1. Lots of Cardboard (I used around 25 long pieces but depends on the size of your cardboard or cat)
  2. Cardboard scissors (can use regular but it's a lot easier)
  3. X-Acto knife
  4. Packing tape
  5. Hot glue
  6. Meter Stick
  7. Palm Sander (optional)

Step 2: Collect and Measure

What you should do is to grab as much cardboard that you can possibly get (and I mean A LOT). Once you have collected the cardboard you will start to measure and marking (I used an X-acto knife to make perforations) where you will eventually cut into. I chose to make mine at 5 inches but it is up to your personal preference.

Step 3: Begin to Cut Along the Edge

Try your best to cut along the straight line. It is okay if it is not perfectly straight because you will eventually sand the whole thing later.

Step 4: Crunch, Roll and Tape

To first start, you will begin to crinkle, crunch and soften the cardboard so that you can easily roll your cardboard into a "spiral". You will roll you first spiral and tape down the cardboard end to itself using packing tape. Every time you add a piece onto the spiral you must make sure to add it to the place where the last piece of cardboard ended for it to be more smooth and flat. You will slowly roll on every piece of your softened cardboard to your original spiral until it starts to reach a place where you feel like its big enough for your cat. I made mine around 16-18 inches wide so my fat cats can rest comfortably.

Step 5: Remeasure and Perfect

Unforutanlty, no matter how hard I try, I always struggle to make every piece the EXACT same size as the others. So what I did was remeasure the height at the end to make sure it's at a good place. Afterward, I sanded down, using a palm sander, the top of the tree trunk. This is not necessary, but I felt like my cats would like a smoother, flat surface for them to sit, lay, sleep, and scratch on.

Step 6: Time to Prepare for Decoration

If you look at cardboard you realize its made usually of three layers. The first and last layer is a soft flat piece of paper which sandwiches a singular piece of stong rippled cardboard. You will remove one layer of soft cardboard so that the bottom paper will stay connected to the rippled piece of cardboard. Try your best to keep the bottom layer intact because this will be the beginning layer of your tree's bark. After removing the paper from the rippled cardboard wrap it around the tree base to make sure it is at the height you want, if not trim it. Also, by removing the paper from the cardboard it allows it to move freely and bend a lot easier so you won't have to crunch it. Then apply hot glue to your tree base and add on the rippled paper. It is okay if you have a small gap because you can fill it in with a small (or large) piece of cardboard.

Step 7: Tree Bark!

For the tree bark, you will take either small or large pieces of cardboard (I used scrap cardboard) and trim them until it has one pointed end and one flat end. You will have to ake many of these so be prepared. Also, try your best to make many sizes and shapes for a more complex, beautiful design.

Step 8: Making Your Tree Look Like a Tree

Make as many pieces of bark possible. Make a small plan for where each piece of bark will go. Afterwards, use a glue gun to attach the bark to the tree.

Step 9: Making the Bottom of Your Tree

Use scrap pieces of cardboard, paper, felt, or whatever works best for you. I used scrap cardboard paper and attached it to the bottom using hot glue.

Step 10: Making the Non-Slip Bottom

Just with a little bit of hot glue and some patience, you will have a non-slip bottom so that your cats can go wild.

Step 11: You Are Now Complete

Put this bad boy on the floor and watch your cats go crazy. I added a bit of catnip on the top to intrigue them, and since then they have not stopped scratching the tree.