Origami Christmas Trees

I spotted Carol L's origami Christmas tree card in the Playground recently and just had to have a try for myself - it wasn't until I'd made up six trees that I realised how similar the papers I used are to Carol's as I was looking at a tutorial using totally different papers! Anyhow, this is my version and I know hope that Carol won't mind:

I used:

- 3.75" x 3.75" square white card blank

- backing card by 'unknown', but very similar to Kanban and I got enough to cover the front of six card blanks from one A4 sheet

- paper from the Raspberry Road 'Christmas Collection' paper pad, free with QCME magazine three years ago

- then I followed THIS tutorial, making a mistake along the way - sigh. I cut the largest squares wrongly along one side (yes, I was making six cards the same at once!) and as a result had to scale down each square to one quarter inch smaller all round than the tutorial says. It still worked but what a dumb thing to do!

- after doing all the folding I assembled the trees onto strips of narrow paper which had a length of red tape liner down them - that made it easier to hold things in place. Then I finished off the bottom ends with slightly wider strips of paper to match the tree as little 'trunks' and tucked the top strips up into the bottom layer

- at this point I felt the trees were too 'bouncy' and although it wasn't clear in the tutorial I then carefully added little strips of red liner tape to hold the very back of each tree to the layer in front. That made them more robust yet still left the dimension of the folded down points sitting there free

- next I added the gold star peel offs to the top centre of each card - much easier to do it that way round as it then gives you a centred point underneath which to place the Christmas tree

- took the risk and added three strips of red line tape to the back of each tree - it's unforgiving if you get it wrong but it was the surest way to fix the trees in place - and it worked fine, thanks to that centrally placed star

- had already measured and trimmed the trunks down to size before sticking the trees in place so it was just a case of adding the sentiment banners - bought from Lakeland Limited back in the Dark Ages

Little word of warning though, they will only go through my letter postal gauge with more encouragement than our postal service allows, so it's either large letter postage or making sure they're for hand delivery only.

And another six cards went into the box! Am almost at my target now so am able possibly to spend more time on family cards than usual - we'll see!

Edit: this was written a few days ago, since then I feel like I've had a foot run over by a steam roller and am spending a lot of time lying with said foot in the air :) 

Less than a handful of you know what's going on, for those who don't, it started with a big toe pain a week ago and built up to a full-orchestra crescendo over the weekend. And it wasn't just the piccolos gently playing - it was the big bass drum in full blast!

Current theory is that it's gout (not just reserved for old men then!) and absolutely agonising. On a scale of 1-10 it's a 10+ for sure. And that's from a gal who's had umpteen pretty awful injuries over the years. Have been whipped off some statins pills that I always thought were rather suspect when I reluctantly started them three months ago - and am now hoping for relief - ASAP please!!! 

So, this is a plea to please be patient about your lovely prizes if you won this weekend just gone - right now I can't walk let alone put a shoe on to drive the car! Am padding around when absolutely necessary on crutches with bare feet but will do my best just as soon as am more mobile.

Also, it's a heads up that am not sure how I'll handle the Snippets Playground right now. I have a cosy nook on one of the sofas with cushions under knees etc. and my foot in the air plus a baby laptop to keep in touch - problem is that I can't sit at the main desk for very long at all, crafting is very much out of the window - plus the little laptop is quite slow. So, if my commenting is erotic erratic right now - that's the reason.

 Err, also, I keep falling asleep due to the strong painkillers ................. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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