DIY Christmas Tree and Christmas Decor Using Arduino

Christmas is incomplete with gifts and, therefore, a place for Santa Claus to keep them - the Christmas Tree. And since we’ve been on a DIYing spree this year since quite a long time, why not continue it in the case of the tree and make an unconventional one ourselves, right from Scratch?

All that you need in your DIYing basket are some acrylic pieces in the shape of a tree, an RGB LED strip, and a code et voilà! Your DIY unique Christmas Tree up and ready to shine bright! Once you set it up, it is, for sure, going to the most unusual tree in the entire town! Plus, who knows, Santa might get impressed and bring you an extra special gift this year, say a unique STEMpedia DIY kit! ;)

Why are you still here? Start setting up your tree!

Step 1: Components Needed

evive
RGB Strip
Acrylic Sheets
Clay
Glitter
Jumper Cables
Quilling Paper
Glue

Step 2: Making the Christmas Tree Using Acrylic Sheet

Take the Acrylic Sheet, this will make up our Christmas Tree.

With the help of the outline given above, cut the Acrylic Sheet.
Once you have the cutouts in your hand fix them in the gaps accordingly.

You can also download the pdf of the same and give it for the Laser Cut.

CT_ClearAcrylic_8mm_1200x900mm.pdf
Download

Step 3: Lighting Up the Tree

As by now you have noticed that the Tree we made is a transparent one, the lights will enhance its effect.

So we are going to use the RGB Strip.

Before we attach the RGB Strip, solder jumper cables at the end of the RGB Strip.

Tape the RGB Strip at the outer end in such a way that the LEDs face inwards.

Step 4: String for Your Decor

We cannot simply glue or tape the decor at the surface of the tree.

Will we need to add the strings through the holes we made earlier into the tree.

Make sure that the thread is quite strong and is tied tightly.

Step 5: Decor Items : Snow Man and Glitter Balls

Once we are done with the strings onto the tree, keep it aside.

We are going to use simple materials that will turn our Christmas Tree into a blast.

Take the white Clay and shape it in the shape of the cute little snowman. You can vary the way you want to decorate.
We used the orange clay to turn it into his nose. Use ribbon to make scarf and marker to make the eyes of the snowman.

Similarly using the clay, make small spheres and to add some festive touch, roll the sphere into the glitter.
Make as many as you want.

Also, you can use the same clay, to make gift boxes and stars out of it.

Step 6: The Star!

We are going to use Quilling Paper to make the star.

The star that we are going to make is the 6 blade Star.

Take Quilling paper, comb. and Glue.
Upon the comb wrap the quilling paper, to the third teeth.
Glue the end to the previous layer.
Again wrap the paper onto the comb but to one layer above the previous layer. Similarly, glue the end to the previous layer of paper.
Continue until you reach at the end of the paper.

Take the pattern out from the grip of the comb and press it firmly.
This will make sure that you have the blades of the star pointy.

Complete the star and glue the blades together.

Step 7: The Connections

Make the connections of the RGB Strip to the evive as shown in the figure.

The connection here will be parallel.

Step 8: Scratch Code

We are going to use Scratch as our programming language for this.

But before that, we need to add one more extension to our Scratch Library.
Download the RGB Extension and add it by clicking on the option of Extensions and then browsing the zip file.

Once done, write the code or directly upload the following code to evive.

Step 9: Decorate

Finally, once you are done with preparing everything, it's time to decorate the tree.

I have placed the tree on the Turntable that I have previously made. To the string on the tree, hang all the decorations that you have made.
Place the gifts underneath the tree. You can create the snowy effect using the cotton and covering the tree using the cotton.