Day 14 at Beccy's Place - L is for Lots of Layers

  I'm playing along with the

Ninth Annual Month Of Holiday Cards

at

Beccy's Place

I'm not colouring at the moment but I am working on Christmas craft projects for creative little hands around our neighbourhood ... the endless months of Covid-19 lockdowns has brought our community much closer and I look forward to sharing more crafty adventures with them over the coming weekends and school holidays now that restrictions have eased.

Beccy's prompt for Day 14 is the letter "L"

(Beccy's post with "L" inspiration words and

little lambs card to inspire is HERE)

My "L" kids Christmas activity kit is for paper strip Christmas Trees using LOTS of layers of paper strips, LOTS of liquid glue and LOTS of embellishments.

Note the new watermark - Created "with" Tracy

To make the cone, I cut a one third circle from the brown (letter sized) cardstock, as large as I could make it ... I confess I used my Silhouette Cameo and it made life so much easier.  Gently curve the panel and glue along one side edge to make the cone shape.  The size of the cone can be adjusted by making the overlap section larger.  Next came LOTS more cutting.  I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the green (letter sized) cardstock into strips 4" x 1/2" ... 44 strips should be more than enough for little glue covered hands to make a Christmas Tree.  Instead of my gnarly fingers doing a test run on my first Christmas Tree, I decided to get some help from some creative little hands (Thank You J & Z) to test out the number of strips and how to adhere them in place.  There are lots of choices in how to add glue to the strips, from dipping, brushing or squeezing, it doesn't really matter as long as there is enough glue on the strips to adhere them randomly to the cone.

A lot of our crafting times are spent outside on the front lawn, which helps the glue dry faster too.  While the glue is drying, the difficult decisions need to be made about what embellishments to use to decorate the tree.  I have a variety of rhinestones, star-shaped sequins, round sequins and fluffy pom poms on hand to choose from.  I also have star punches, glitter cardstock and sticker maker that is always popular, little hands love using punches and making their own stickers.  By the time the embellishments are chosen, the trees are dry and ready to be decorated.

One tree was left with just the "leaves" because it was getting worn as a hat.  The small circle plier punch will get a workout next time and mask elastic will be tied on to finish the Christmas Tree Hat.

   

The other tree, well that's a completely different story

... it was time to bring out the bling, lots of bling.

This tree was finished off with a sparkling star made by punching out two stars, painting them with glue and smothering with glitter (pink and silver).  A pipe cleaner was poked up through the top of the tree and the stars glued together on it, topping the tree with the double-sided sparkling star.

   

This was such a delightful project and I hope that you enjoy J & Z's wonderful designs as much as me.  I  have learnt that one sheet of strips is more than enough for each tree kit and that little hands can be more creative than you could ever imagine.

*** A note of caution, using too much glue can soon

become a soggy mess and take a long time to dry. ***

*** A word of advice, have a bucket of warm water and a towel nearby

so that sticky little glue covered hands can be rinsed off regularly. ***

*** INGREDIENTS ***

brown cardstock - for cone base of Christmas Tree

green cardstock - strips for branches/leaves of Christmas Tree

( 4" x 1/2" strips from letter sized sheet )

tacky glue

ornaments for Christmas Tree - rhinestones / sequins / pom poms

I have rolls of tiny glue dots on hand to secure sequins and

pom poms in place, as they make it quicker and easier to attach them

star punch + glitter cardstock + sticker maker

( little hands love using punches and making their own stickers )

*** REFERENCE ***

This project was inspired by the "Paper Strip Christmas Tree" post on the the "Housing A Forest" blog HERE.