It's
Evelyn's fault I am doing this... ;)
I made three of
these last year, one for me and one for each of our mothers for Mother's Day. They ended up belated because 1) I went and had a baby four days after Mother's Day and was too tired to do anything but create life in the few weeks leading up to the day and 2) they were too big to ship so we wrapped them up and drove them home with us in August. Late or not, they were a huge hit!
This gal has got some great templates and directions, but I tweaked it a bit...
Come closer... closer....
Pretty awesome huh?
Alright, since I didn't take pictures as I made them I'm going off of memory here...
You're going to need a piece of foam core board cut to 18x24 inches and four sheets of light, neutralish, 12x12 scrapbook paper. Make them all the same if you want or different like I did mine... it's your project.
Measure and draw a light pencil line across the center of your board and then rotate and do it again so you end up with something like this... sort of like window panes.
Now glue your 12x12's on there on those lines to form your background. Make sure all your edges are lined up well and none of your white board is peeking through. You can glue them on however you want. Sticks, runners, spray... I wouldn't use regular old Elmers. Ever. For Anything. It sucks. I used runners but it took a lot and if I did it again I'd just glue stick it. After they are glued on you'll have to trim about three inches off of the top and the bottom, turn it upside down (I did mine on the carpet) and use one of these type things...
to trim the extra paper off.
So now your background is good to go... and you get to argue with the computer a bit.
I used Paint Shop Pro to print a six page template that I had to cut out and then piece together, it was a hassle. If I had it to do again I would order a poster from FedEx-Kinkos for $20ish. In a heartbeat. But in case you were wondering...
Download the tree PDF from
HERE.
Open in PSP and go to Print Layout.
Drag the tree into the frame and click NO when it asks you if you want to scale it. It'll look like this...
Click outside the box and drag the tree so it looks like this...
Print that, I would recommend printing your template pieces on card stock. Then repeat for each of the other corners. Then print middle sections, it'll work out to be 6 sheets of paper, divided like this... sort of. The pieces will over lap a bit...
After your pieces are all printed lay them out so the tree looks right and tape together with packing tape, again, they are going to overlap... don't panic. Tape the front and the back and then cut out the tree using one of the above shown blade thingies and smooth, swooping strokes. A mat like this is helpful if you have one, if not use cardboard and do it on the carpet, not your table... just in case.
Once your template is all cut out toss the tree part and keep the frame, so it's like a stencil. Then you can trace it onto your tree paper with a pencil.
I used brown contractor/craft paper. It's like $9 a roll at Lowe's and you can use it for EVERYTHING. My entryway is wallpapered with it. No joke. Brown paper packages tied up with strings anyone? I kid you not I am using it for Christmas wrap with some of that red and white twisted string this year. ANYWAYS, trace the tree. I used silverware to hold the stencil and the paper down while I traced. Go slow.
Remove stencil, replace silverware and use either the rotary mat (shown above) or cardboard and an xacto knife to cut out the tree, smooth swooping strokes here people. Make the SWOOOOP noise while you do it, it'll help :).
Once your tree is all cut out you're ready to glue it onto your prepped foam core board. Use a glue runner type thing for this. One that makes dots, not dashes or solid lines... Elmer's makes some that I buy at WalMart that work just fine and are waaaay cheaper than this POS I paid too much for at Hobby Lobby.
Don't buy that one. It seriously sucks.
Lay clean sheets of paper over your cardboard or rotary mat and run the dots over the entire tree, all those pesky little branches need to be covered. Don't worry when they roll up and stick to each other, you'll get to pull them apart later :) After it's all glued lay it down STARTING WITH THE TRUNK OF THE TREE. Center the trunk over the seam in the papers. Easy peasy. Smooth the trunk out and start working your way up the branches until you've gotten them all. Some of them will have curled up and stuck together a bit, don't panic... just pick them apart carefully and stick them down.
Voila! Tree ready for leaves. Guess who gets to cut all those bad boys out? Haha. You.
Again, download the template
HERE. I printed that sucker right on the leaf paper. There are two shades of green, one for girls and one for guys, but the difference is subtle. As you can see
HERE, she used two different colors... Greens were the ones that I liked when I was at the store touching all the paper. Buy 8.5x11's of those so you can print right on them, I can't imagine what a nightmare it would be to trace all those leaves. Then, once again... smooth, swooping cuts to cut out all the leaves. Use big scissors. This is not the time to break out the 5" Fiskars. Also, I say buy two sheets of each color and print two sheets of each color so if you screw stuff up when you are writing on them you can fix it quickly. You don't need to cut out the second sheet, just have it standing by.
Once all your leaves are cut out lay them out on your tree, remembering that there are two different colors for males and females. Use the diagram she's got
HERE to help. After they are all laid out, and you're sure they are correct, glue them down. Again glue use a glue runner that makes dots and some clean paper to glue on.
After you've gathered all your info you get to start writing the names on. Gathering and writing is the fun part. I learned while doing this that Dad has ancestors way back on his maternal grandmother's side from the town in Luxembourg where
Vianden Castle, my favorite of the castles we saw when I was a kid, was. I was SO excited when I found that out. Seriously. Made my whole day. The place is gorgeous.
Use the same diagram you used in the last step to get everything on there in the right place. I used this pen...
SUPER fine tip. Great lines and I think it was $1.99 to boot. I love Zig pens.
Once you get out to the smaller leaves it can get to be hard to fit everything on, I only put names and birthdates on mine. Also, stick a sheet of paper under your hand, just in case, to prevent smudging. Go slow, check and double check you're putting the right name on the right leaf. And if you mess it up, no worries... that's why we printed more leaves. Cut out a replacement, CAREFULLY peel the old leaf off and stick down the new one. No one will ever know. I promise.
Now comes framing. Frames this size can be pricey so either 1) watch for a 50% off sale at Hobby Lobby (they have them all the time) or 2) use a 40% off coupon. Either way, expect to pay $25-30 for a good looking frame.
If you buy an open back frame you'll need to pick up some glazier points (also in the framing department) and, I would recommend, a sheet of plexiglass. I got my plexiglass at Lowe's for $4. I use plexiglass in large things like this because I have kids and if they manage to knock it off the wall I don't want anyone getting hurt and I don't want to have to clean up 18x24 inches worth of shattered glass.
HERE is a great how to on glazier points. Don't worry, they're pretty easy. If you have trouble getting them to go it with a screw driver, like I did, try a metal spackle knife. There's a learning curve here but don't stress out. You'll get it, and they're on the back anyways. Space them about four inches apart all the way around.
Once it's all secure attach a hanging wire to your frame if necessary, there are usually directions on the package (OOK is a great brand for great directions on the package).
HERE is a video how-to in case you need it.
There ya go Evelyn. Call me if you need help ;)
