I've got a trio of Christmas trees to share today just using the Christmas Tree Die from the recent release from A Pocketful of Happiness - although a one pass die, its really easy to do many different things with it!
For the first card - I die cut the tree from 4 shades of green card. Using the darkest shade as the frame I then used the 3 other shades to infill it - just using strips of card wide enough for each layer to use up some scraps I had. Adding a golden star and baubles from yellow card. Finished with a tiny stamped sentiment so the tree is the big bold star. I didn't like the green around the trunk so just went over it with a black pen.
For the second card (far right) I wanted to use the frames I had from the strips I cut to infill the first tree. I stuck the bottom edge over the "ridges" that were hanging over the top of each layer. I cut a brown trunk and a yellow star - this gives you a funky coloured tree outline. I had planned on leaving it at that but it looked too white on the white background so I just used some green shimmer paint to "flood" each section so you don't even need to paint, just drop the colour in and let it run. Finished with baubles and another stamped sentiment.
The tree is such a good size on its own I also wanted to make a shaped card with it and its really easy to do. I just drew around the die on a folded piece of green card and then cut the line with scissors. You just need to have a decent width of "fold" at the top to make a hinge so overhang the star at the top so the widest bit is on the fold line.
This time I went with a matt cold frame and used the same to infill the star and trunk just leaving the rest of the tree an outline. Filling in the star is essential to cover the "missing bit" to make the whole card a shaped card. I finished with just red bulbs from the same time and sentiment on a double thick piece of card across the trunk. The card will stand which is fun for a shaped card. You could create single layered shaped ones for gift tags too.
Hope this has given you some more ideas of how to play with your dies to get more looks - I love a die like this for Christmas cards as you can mix and match 4 cuts for 4 different quick cards!
Happy Crafting!
Tara
