Twirling Trees

Hello everyone. . .

Welcome to the Shabby Art Boutique and our 3rd week of Simply Christmas. With just 41 days until Christmas, are you beginning to feel that Christmas spirit?

I started preparing my Christmas decorating over the weekend in readiness to decorate my house in a week or so. When do you start putting up your decorations?

Today’s tutorial is for a quick and fun project for a nifty decoration. . . Twirling Trees

I made these little twirling trees from scrapbooking paper and clear faceted beads. They twirl around in the breeze, so I plan to hang mine from a few branches in a large vase, interspersed with some baubles.

Here’s the pattern. You will need to save it to your photo file and then re-size it in a word document, before printing. I made my tree 10 cm high, but you can make it any height.

• Next you need to trace the tree onto some tracing paper.
• Using a sheet of graphite paper and a stylus, transfer the tracing onto the back of your scrapbook paper. You will need two trees to assemble each tree.

Note: if you don’t have graphite paper for tracing, you can use the old school way of scribbling over the back of your tracing with grey lead pencil and then draw over the top of your tracing to get an imprint.

• Using a sharp craft knife and a cutting mat, cut the trees out on the outline. Then  cut all the internal horizontal lines – we are discarding the dark segments on the pattern tracing, so you end up with 6 pieces per tree.

To assemble the tree you will need:

• some fine jewellery wire or several strands of embroidery cotton,
• 5 small faceted beads for between your tree branches and two larger beads for the tree trunk,
• either double sided tape or craft glue.

• Cut a length of wire and make a small loop in one end, using your jewellery pliers.
• Thread the two beads for the trunk
• Apply tape to the longest (base) segment of your tree and place it on the wire in the centre – see photo. Place the corresponding piece from your other cut out tree over the top and press firmly to adhere the two pieces of paper.
• Thread on the first of your small beads.
• Repeat this process until all segments of the tree and the beads are attached to the wire.
• Make a small hanger at the top of the tree out of the remaining wire. Cut off any excess wire.

. . .and there you have it, a pretty twirling tree!

There are so many beautiful Christmas papers available. . . imagine the possibilities!!!

If you haven’t already entered the $100 VISA card giveaway, there’s still time. Pop over to here to enter.

Have you joined the Simply Christmas Inspiration party?

There are already some amazing and beautiful projects there. Come on ladies. .  . we all want to see what you are making or preparing for Christmas. I’ve already had quite a few of you email photos of your lovely completed Christmas Planners. . . so don’t be shy, link them up to the

Simply Christmas Inspiration Party in the post below.  I’ll be picking a few favourites to showcase on Friday.