A Tree For All Seasons

 

   The new Tree Of Life die set from John Next Door lends itself to much more than card making. I love making 3D projects and this was perfect to use with the Stepped Lantern for a seasonal terrarium.

     

     Using Kraft card I cut four trees and folded each one in half. The next step was to glue the trees together in pairs.

     While the trees were drying I cut the Stepped Lantern in acetate, with a black card base and assembled it.

     To get the tree to stand up and stay strong I added two thin strips of Kraft card to the bottom of the trunk before gluing the two sides together to form a complete tree.

    

     For Spring I die cut lots of pink flowers with one of the dies in the set, shaped them and glued them all over a quarter of the tree. I didn't add leaves as many trees flower before any leaves appear.

     The next section was Summer, a healthy covering of green leaves in several shades, all shaped and glue onto the branches.

     Using the same leaf die I cut lots of leaves in Autumn shades, shaped them and glue them onto the tree.

     For Winter I used some flock and a little Flowersoft, both in white. 

     I cut a base to go inside the lantern and made a slit in the centre. I passed the extra tabs on the bottom of the tree through the slit and glued them on the underside, I also added glue around the trunk on the right side of the base.

     Once the glue was dry and the tree was firm on it's base I inked, with green, the half that was under Spring and Summer. Using some flock and Flowersoft from my stash I decorated the 'ground', adding fallen leaves to Autumn and snow to Winter.

     When the tree and base were dry I gently slid them into the terrarium, gluing the 'ground' to the base. A little check on the tree to tidy up any stray decoration and make sure the inside of the acetate was clean before using a length of cord to seal the top.

     Die cut ivy was then used on the top to add some interest to the outside.

     It was a little fiddly in places but not as complicated as you might think, the main thing is to make sure the tree is standing firmly on it's base, you don't want it falling over once inside the terrarium.

I would like to enter this project in the following challenges:

A Perfect Time To Craft - #3 Anything Goes

Classic Design - #3 Anything Goes

Daisy Chain - #61 Use Dies

Happy Little Stampers with Dies - Anything Goes with Dies

Love To Craft - #67 Anything Goes

The Four Seasons - Anything Goes Spring

Gem Of A Craft - #6 Anything Goes

Spring Blooms

     Today is the start of our March challenge at The Paper Funday. We are an anything goes challenge with an optional twist, this month it's Spring.

     My chosen digi image is from Eureka! Stamps called Frame Full Of Flowers. It comes as a line drawn image ready for you to colour, but as my colouring skills are pretty basic I chose to work it another way. 

     I did colour an image but it didn't look very good so I decided to just fill in the background areas with black to make the flowers and foliage pop. Having coloured an image I had something to use as reference on this one, trying to pick out what was a leaf rather than background was much easier.

     Just black and white was nice but it needed a lift, so I used a gold glitter gel pen to highlight all the flower stamens. I also cut off the rope border that surrounds the image to mount it on black card.

     To make it a little more Spring like I used a bright yellow mat layer for that pop of cheerful colour. Mounting it on a white card didn't look quite right, it took away from the image, so I used a Kraft card instead.

     A very simple card made with a pretty digi stamp, hopefully proving that if you are like me and not so good at colouring, you can still use them to create individual artworks.

     Please pop over and join us at The Paper Funday with your creative projects, we would love to see what you have made with paper and card.

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Crafts Galore Encore - #97 Anything Goes

Crafting Happiness - #121 Anything Goes

Paperminutes - #733 Spring