the hybrid chick

I  just love decorating for the holidays, and this year I’m determined to make as much of my holiday decor as possible.  So when I saw Mari Koegelenberg’s DIY Banner Template, I thought to myself, “that could make a cool Christmas tree!”  After a quick little download, I was amazed at how easily it all came together.  Since my prototype turned out so well, I just had to make a little trio of trees to display on a table in my entry room.

Here’s what you’ll need for this project:

• DIY banner template
• some cute digital papers 
• a ruler and scoring tool
• adhesive
• scissors
• optional embellishments (ribbon, rhinestones, buttons, rain drops, etc)

The DIY banner template comes with two banners on an 8.5 x 11 page, and you’ll need three banners for one tree.  I like to make the most of my piece of paper, so I grouped each banner and moved them around, then duplicated one at 75% and one at 50% of the original size, so that I could make four trees (2 large, 1 medium, 1 small) with just 3 sheets of paper.  {Tip: If you’re duplicating, I’d recommend clipping your papers and changing the color of the fill lines first, so you don’t have to do it individually for each banner.   For a quick tutorial that explains clipping layers and editing fill lines, check out this article.}

You’ll want to clip two different papers to each banner shape.  I chose similar papers, but a slightly darker shade for the outer scalloped area.  The papers on the aqua trees are from the High of 75 kit by Sugarplum Paperie.  The green tree uses Sienna Papers by Roben-Marie Designs. After you’ve printed and cut out your banners, you need to score two lines on each banner.  Since we used two different papers, it’s easy to tell where you need to score, which is right along the line where the two papers meet.  Next, just fold the scallop edges upward along the score line.

Once you’ve folded everything, it’s just a matter of lining up the scallops and gluing the pieces together.  I used Scor-Tape for my tree, because it’s mess-free, but any type of adhesive will work.  And there you go, a completed tree!  Repeat and you’ll have your own display in no time. You can leave your trees plain, or embellish to your heart’s content.  To dress them up a little, you can add some Oregon Rain Drops to each scallop with some Diamond Glaze.  You can also add buttons, pearls, beads, stickers or rhinestones for the same effect, but I chose the rain drops since an entire tree has 45 scallops and the Rain Drops are pretty cost-effective.  Another option is to punch holes in the scallops once your tree is assembled and then lace it with ribbon. You can also hang ornaments (hand-made or otherwise) from them, or wrap some ribbon around as a garland. There are so many decorating options, so have fun trimming your trees! Here’s a look at my finished display.

Digichick products used in today’s article:

Other Articles by Vervegirl:

• Working with Clear Stamps - October 3rd, 2009
• Chipboard Magnets - May 6th, 2009
• Afternoon Take Out - April 1st, 2009