TGIF – Unconventional Trees, 2 Ways

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TGIF time! We’re heading into the last weekend before Christmas and I hope you’re all doing well.

I had a little time to create this week, and wanted to share a couple of different ideas I had for creating trees using some unconventional supplies. While your holiday cards are likely finished up and already on their way, these fun trees would also be perfect for post-holiday thank-yous or even winter birthdays.

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My first unconventional tree was inspired by my dad (hi Dad! 😊). He’s always making cute stuff out of old barnwood and other supplies, and lately he’s been making some really cute trees. I took his idea and turned it into a paper version using our Shiplap Builder die. I mitered several planks to create the tree. My dad was probably able to just whip that out in no time, but it took me a bit to figure out the best way to get it just right! The planks were sponged and splattered before diecutting, like I showed in THIS video. I used Frayed Burlap and Weathered Wood Oxide inks along with some white gouache for the white-washed effect.

Once my tree was assembled I embellished it with some diecut leaves and branches. These were cut using a few different dies – the BotaniCuts Mighty Oak and Inside & Out Berry Branch. I always seem to have a little pile of these on my desk left from other projects and they were perfect for this.

For the background, I wanted some texture, but also didn’t want to distract from the tree, so I layered some Inside & Out Berry Branch diecuts over my background, cut from the same paper. I added a few splatters and gold stars as well, cut using the Pinwheel Party die.

My next tree uses the Macramé Openwork Base die to create a cute fringe-y tree.

To create the tree, I used the straight openwork die from the Macramé Openwork Base set and cut it twice, directly side-by-side, like this:

Then I trimmed it down to the height I wanted my tree to be – I used the twig and pole hangers from the Boho Banner die as the center of my trees, so I trimmed down my fringe portion just a bit shorter than that, to allow for the trunk to extend beyond the tree. Then I just used my paper trimmer to trim each side from the lower outer corners to the center of the strip like this…

You can use as many layers as you’d like, depending on how “fluffy” you want your trees to be – I used two layers for mine. On my project today I used white cardstock, but colors are cute too as you can see from the other trees in my photo – they use two layers as well, but cut from different shades of green cardstock.

For the background on this one, I created a shiplap background using the same ink colors and technique that I mentioned above. I added some white ink splatters and gold stars to finish it off. The sentiment is from the Tree Trimmings set and was heat embossed with white over the shiplap background.

Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope these ideas for creating trees using unconventional supplies got your creative juices going! Happy weekend!