2015

Firstly, all the very best wishes for a happy, healthy and successful year 2015 to all of you.

I used the last few days to create some more handcrafted decorations for the festive season. And although I am happy with the results, they turned out to be pretty time consuming and I wondered more than once why I started them in the first place.

To cut the Christmas tree itself the cardstock for each element had to run through the Cuttlebug five to six times before all sections were cut properly. And then I sat here for ages holding together the Christmas tree elements until the so-called 'quick dry' tacky glue was holding the two parts securely together ...

The die for the baubles cuts two at the same time, but due to decorating the entire tree I needed to run it through the Cuttlebug 16 times per tree. I ordered more 3mm pearls before Christmas, but Royal Mail kindly only delivered mail on Monday this week and they are consequently not yet here. The only other sufficient amount of pearls from the same manufacturers that I had here comes on strips - and yes, I ended up removing every single one of the pearls from the adhesive strip, which took ages. As I want to keep the decorations for future years, I wanted to use a tiny drop of PVA glue for a stronger bond under each pearl anyway. I will make more of these trees ... but that can wait for another couple of months.

The ingredients for these intricate Christmas trees:
* Spellbinders 3D Christmas tree die set
* Double-sided pearlescent cardstock (I used Moondust card in 'Crystal')
* Foundations cardstock in vintage gold and vintage silver
* 5mm pearls
* 3mm pearls
* PVA glue