Whimsical Holiday Christmas Tree!!

Decorating for the holidays is truly fun for me. {well almost all...except the dragging of the umpteen containers from the basement to the main floor!!}

I'll admit: I love bright, colorful holiday decorations. Come to my home and you'll find orange, aqua and pinks mixed with candy apple red and lime green decorations.

It's a cheerful color combination to spruce up traditional holiday colors.And it makes me smile.

This whimsical tree is easy to construct. Make one or a set of three...one larger and two smaller (as decorations look good in set's of three) to match your home decorations or give one as a gift.




Supplies:

• Echo Park "Everyone Loves Christmas" paper collection
• Glue Arts Glue Glider Pro Perma Tac, 3D Combo Pac, extreme adhesive squares and micro adhesive squares
• May Arts ribbons (MayArts.com)
• Bo Bunny Double Dot Wasabi cardstock
• The Twinery Baker's Twines (thetwinery.com)
• Colorbox Chalk Inks: warm red, creamy brown, aqua and moss green
• Papier-maché tree (Hobby Lobby)
• EK Success Border Punches: double embossed dotted lace, large edger punch circles, loops
• Kaisercraft jewels
• K & Company gems
• Karen Foster Snowflake Brad

Step 1 • Begin by choosing a variety of border punches (or decorative edge scissors) along with your papers. Start with the first paper that will be the bottom edge of the tree. Punch the edge and cut to a desired width. A good width to maintain is 1½ to 2 inches. Once the paper is punched and cut, place the paper onto the tree and "fold" around the sides, creasing as you do this. Then cut along the creases to create individual pieces to adhere to the sides of the tree.

Step 2 • Ink the paper edges and then adhere to the tree using the Glue Glider Pro Perma Tac cartridge for a strong adhesion.

Step 3 • Continue this step, varying the border punches and widths as you work your way from the bottom to the top of the tree. Add in ribbons in place of papers for a fun look.

Step 4 • Once the entire tree has been covered, select the Echo Park Paper "Everybody Loves Christmas Ornament." Hand cut the ornaments out of the paper. Ink the edges.

Step 5 • Decorate the paper ornaments with gems and Stickles glitter. Apply a square of 3D Combo Pac foam adhesive to backside of the ornament. Adhere to the tree. Tie bakers twine onto the ornaments.

Step 6 • Finish off with a hand cut or punched star embellished with a snowflake brad, gems and last … a bit of ink on the edges.