- Take a piece of 6x6” paper and cut in half. Do this with 4 or 5 different designs so that your paper rolls will be a mixture of designs.
- All your paper rolls will be 3” long. You then need 9 rolls, starting at ½” and increasing in size by ¼” with each roll. I'm showing the first few all in the same paper in this example but when I make the trees I vary the designs, laying them out as I go to check how they contrast. Another top tip I learnt was, use stripes vertically not as I have here - cut this way you would lose the stripe once rolled ;-)
- Using a wooden Kebab stick and your thumb curl the paper along the 3” length a little. Then put double sided tape along the edge furthest from your stick. Now roll the bead nice and tightly.
- Complete with all 9 rolls. When finished lay them out and measure how tall the tree will be on the card. I then cut High Bond Tape to this length and lay it on the prepared card bank as if it were the trunk. You can add a couple of other strips at an angle if you like, to help hold the rolls. Starting with the longest paper roll, place them seam facing down up along the 'sticky trunk'.
- Decorate with gems or pearls – Dovecraft Back to Basics do both to match the papers - and then hand draw on the trunk and faux stitching around the white card if you wish.
- And away you go...
