Welcome to my blog – especially to all my new followers.  I hope that you find some inspiration from my creative endeavours just I find inspiration from other blogs and blog hops.

Today I will be showing my version of the rosette Christmas tree that is shown front of our Holidays from the Heart Gift Guide.  Here is the picture on the front of the Holiday Gift Guide.

There are instructions for doing the rosettes with the Artiste Cricut cartridge and Jenny Gilbert has really detailed instructions here.  However, I have been asked to teach my friends at Crafty Angels how to make these trees so I have done mine by hand so they are able to go home and do their own.

Here is my version of the tree:

I have adapted the instructions from the archives of Close to My Heart which used a scoring board and a trimmer to make the tree.

The papers that I have used are the Sparkle and Shine papers from the Holidays from the Heart Gift Guide and they pleat so easily.

Before cutting the paper I used my ScorPal to score all the papers at 1/2″ intervals as it made it a lot easier to cut and pleat later.

I have cut the following pieces:

3 strips of 3″ x 12″

3 strips of 2 3/4″ x 12″

2 strips of 2 1/2″ x 12″

2 strips of 2 1/4″ x 12″

2 strips of 2″ x 12″

2 strips of 1 3/4″ x 12″

2 strips of 1 1/2″ x 12″

2 strips of 1 1/4″ x 12″

2 strips of 1″ x 12″

1 strip of 3/4″ x 12″

20 circles – I have used a 1 3/4″ punch for the larger circles and my CCS from CM for cutting two small circles for the top rosette.

As you can see I have reduced the size by 1/4 inch each so make the tree graduate to a point.  You could use another small rosette of 3/4″ x 12″ to place at the top of the tree but I have used my Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge to cut out snowflakes for the top of the tree as well as smaller snowflakes to decorate the tree.  The smaller white snowflakes have had glue applied and I have sprinkled some prisma glitter to give some glitter.  I have also stamped the stars from the Sparkle and Shine WOTG stamp set and fussy cut them out and put some sparkles in the middle of them for a bit of ‘sparkle and shine’.

I have not used a hot glue gun as my skin does not heal easily and I still have scars from last Christmas on my fingers!  But I have discovered Liquid Glass from CTMH to be a really great adhesive for making the adhesive (and for rolling flowers).  The Liquid Glass gives you about a minute to manipulate into place and then it sets really quickly and it did not take me long to do the rosettes.  There are lots of videos on YouTube to show you have to form the rosettes  (I am sorry but I couldn’t find the particular one that I used).  I made sure I had the circles close by to place them on the rosette quickly before I lost the shape.  Because the adhesive set very quickly it did not take long.  Foam squares have been used in between the rosettes as well for additional height.

To finish I had to purchase some green and red ribbon as I did not have Ruby Chevron ribbon or the ribbon to dye with the re-inkers like they have in America.

The materials I have used are:

Sparkle and Shine B&T Duos

Slate cardstock

Daisy White Cardstock

Juniper Ink

Slate Ink

Ruby Ink

Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge

Foam squares

Non-stick scissors

Bonding Memories glue

Liquid Glass

Clear Sparkles

Prisma Glitter

Purchased ribbons.

I hope that you are inspired to make your own version of the tree.  A shorter version would look great as Christmas place settings with names on them, or doing a group of three different sizes would look nice as decorations together as well.

Have a great week as we spiral onwards towards Christmas.

Happy Crafting

Patricia