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Thursday, August 13, 2009

Tutorial - Snow-covered fir/pine trees

This is a tutorial to make something like this.

This was done free-hand. I learned how to this from the 'glitter lady' at a demo night that our local stamp store was having I think a couple of Christmases ago.  (That lady, I later learned, was Deanna Pannell, creator of Dee's Distinctively Dies and Glitter Ritz.)  This is so cool and so amazingly easy that I want to share this with you. These are the tools and materials that you need: 

1. Craft glue – most regular type of craft glue will work I think, e.g. Aleene’s Tacky Glue, Elmer’s Glue All, etc.—we do NOT want the thick kind. I used the Sobo glue pictured above. 

 2. White acrylic paint (you only need a small amount – approx. 25 drops). Any brand will do. I use the one above, because it was on sale--LOL. 

 3. A small empty bottle with a very fine tip (.9 mm aperture). You can buy these at your art or craft store. Got mine at Michaels (in their fabric paint section). 

 4. Glitter—white and/or transparent with highlights--I prefer cool highlights. (Or any colour glitter you want.) The type of glitter is used is Jewel Glitter Ritz Micro Fine Glitter. 

 5. Card stock—the heavier the better. It is ALMOST impossible to find a glue that dries white. Although your craft glue is white in colour, they will dry clear—which is preferable at any other time, as you don’t really want to see globs of glues on your craft projects. But for our purposes here, we want a glue that dries white. The small amount of white paint is required to make your own dries-white glue. If you want the snow on your trees to look white, you need this glue. Otherwise your trees will have a tint of your paper colour. I've taken pictures to show you the difference. This was done using white glitter. The one on the left is with clear glue and the



 




one on the right with white glue.



This one was done using tranparent glitter with cool highlights.




Again the one at the left is with clear glue and the right-side one is with white glue. See what I mean?




If however you want to do your trees in any other colour of glitter, then clear glue is just fine to use.







So a little preparation ahead of time. Fill your bottle about ¾ full with the craft glue and add about 25 drops of the white acrylic paint. Shake it well to mix. 

 Basically the trees are made by making teardrops of glue placed haphazardly to form a picture of a tree and then covering it in glitter. Practice a few strokes of forming tear drops on a scrap piece of paper, by squeezing out a small dot and then dragging it to make the tail. Now, it’s easier to drag down than up, so they’re upside-down teardrops. So what you will be doing is making the tree upside down. ( If you find it easy to do it the other way, by all means, do so. There’s no set rules to this–whatever works for you.) The first 3 dabs of glue you’re going to place on your paper is a guideline to how tall and how wide you want the tree to be. Since it’s easier to SHOW you how to do this rather than tell you, I’ve done a couple of short videos here. I've taken these with my camera, so they're amateurish. I mounted my camera on a tripod, focus it on my craft table and stood behind the setup. I was trying to set my eyes both on what I was doing on the table and on the screen a the same time. LOL. This was fun to do. Had to do several retakes before I ended up with these 2 vids. (There's no oral instruction --I don't like the sound of my own voice. Whenever I hear it coming out of some kind of device, I think I sound...funny, lol.  

For the first tree:                    
                                            

The paper will buckle a bit due to the wet glue, that’s why the heavier the paper the better. But when the glue dries, the paper will flatten itself out...not 100% though. Ideally, you should wait until the glue dries before adding more trees, but I was too impatient. For additional tree(s):                                                                                   

 And you just keeping adding more trees until you get the picture that you want.






When the glue has dried, you can brush the excess glitter back to your container. This is what my end product looks like.

I used this group of trees as a background for Tilda in this card. If you want to see the posting for this card you can click here. I hope you've found this tutorial informative. Have fun with it. PS. Make sure you clean your glue bottle tip as soon as you're not using it. The glue dries fast, but its water soluble. Unscrew the tip from your bottle and put it under running water until all the glue is gone.

PPS. If you decide to give it a try and make a card or cards with your trees, I would love to see it/them. (Send me a link.)



53 comments:

  1. fabulous.. norma that was totally helpful for me. thanks for the time to put that up
    hugs
    claudia

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  2. Ooooh - am going to have to try this out - thanx sooo much for such a clear and easy to follow tutorial! I was wondering how you did these fabulous trees!
    xXx

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  3. fabulous.. will have to try this one day!

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  4. Thanks a bunch ! I'll have to try this !
    it looks so great !

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  5. Thanks so much for sharing this with us. The video helped a lot. Now I'll have to get the bottle with the fine tip and try this.

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  6. I see a lot of trees in the future!!! this is awesome Norma!
    THANKS so much! the Art Glittering System sells an adhesive called "dries white" that I bet would work! Your videos make me see that I CAN do this! This really increases the WOW factor of a card! hehe
    Pam Going Postal

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  7. Oh Norma thank you so much for this how to I can't wait to give it a try. And I love your card it is just adorable as are all your cards.
    Hugs,
    Nancy

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  8. Absolutely brilliant! You've made it look so easy! Thank you .... I'll definitely give this a go :o)

    Teri xx

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  9. Wonderfully beautiful--fabulous winter scene & Tilda looks darlin'! Love your tutorial--will have to try it out!

    hugz,
    Suzanne

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  10. Great tutorial, it's so cool. Thanks for sharing!
    Hugs,
    Cabio

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  11. GORGEOUS card, love the trees. Thank you so much for the videos. They really showed how to make the trees, you made it look so easy. Thanks for taking the time to do this, most helpful.

    hugs,
    Diand

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  12. Norma!!! Absolutely lovely card!!! Your tutorial is great too!!! Thanks for sharing!
    Have a great week end!
    Regina

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  13. Boy is this a Wow! Love those trees. I may have to try that one.

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  14. This is a really neat, cool tutorial! Cool idea for a background ...

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  15. Thank you SO much for the tutorial!!! You can bet I will be trying these trees as soon as I have the supplies!!!
    You made it look super easy.

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  16. Beautiful trees, can't wait to try it out.
    thanks for sharing.

    smallcity

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  17. I have been following your blog for a short time and I just LUV your cards. Thank you so much for sharing how you did the trees using the paint in the glue and then glittered. I will definitely try this as ever green trees are my favs and snow laden are even better. I live in MN where we have lots of ever greens and lots of snow. Hugs and blessings.

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  18. I have been following your blog and LUV your cards. thanks for showing us how to do these tree with the paint in the glue and then glittering them. Evergreens are my favs and snow laden is even better. I live in MN where we have lots of evergreens and lots of snow and it is beautiful. Hugs and blessings.

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  19. I love these cards. I think I may try to make
    them myself!
    Great Job.

    Pinetreeluv.etsy.com

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  20. I fell in love with your trees! Thank you for this tutorial and I placed a link to your pages on my little blog. Wonderful!

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  21. Amazing. LOVE your work it's stunning and your freehand snow is soooooh lovely. Thanks ever so much for sharing this! :o)

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  22. What a great tutorial. This is such a fabulous technique!!! THanks you so much for showing!
    Hugs, Dena

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  23. Such a great idea. Thanks for sharing!
    xoxo, Christine

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  24. So... so cool! I'm really gonna try this! I wished that the craft store was open on Sundaynight ;)
    Thank for your inspiration!
    Hugs Ingrid

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  25. Oh wow...what a wonderful tutorial...thanks so much for taking the time to share this idea. So love the card.

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  26. i really enjoyed watching the videos as i was wondering how you created the tree shape! i am a visual learner so reading about drawing the tree shape only gave me a clue...having the video gave me the complete picture! if, i mean when i use this technique it will be the focus of my design not a background but then i do not colour like you, amazing talents!

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  27. I just saw this tutorial and I'm going to try it! Thanks so much for showing the technique!

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  28. I found this just now, but it's such a great idea
    thanks a lot for sharing us

    hugs


    Annette

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  29. WOW what a good idea... your trees is so lovely... Thank you for sharing! Hugs Susanne

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  30. TFS a cool technique and beautiful project. Love the trees.

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  31. great idea . thanks for the video...x

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  32. How fabulous, Norma Lee! Thank you for going into such detail. I can hardly wait to try this technique! hugs, de

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  33. Another fabulous tutorial! You make it seem so easy! :) Nancee

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  34. Thank you so much for sharing this. The person who came up with this, must have been a painter.

    I found this on Pinterest. I always check that the originator gets credit by being correctly pinned, and once on your blog, I was so intrigued by this, that I watched both videos. Your voice was unnecessary, since you did such a great job with the video. (Watching translates well into all kinds of languages.) I bet this goes wide and far on Pinterest. Once again, thanks so much for sharing this ingenious technique.

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  35. Brilliant tut will be giving this a try. Thank you.

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  36. I've been stamping for 20 years and I can't even begin to tell you how many pine/evergreen tree stamps I have. You're trees are a-m-a-z-i-n-g! Blew my mind watching you make these. I can not wait to try my hand at making these. Just gorgeous...thanks so much for sharing!!

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  37. Thanks so much for your kindness, it´s si beautiful!

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  38. This is an awesome tutorial...thanks for posting...Katrina

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  39. I love your tutorial.... You explained it to make it easier...thank you

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  40. Love this tutorial. I just recently ran across it and tried it. Thanks so much.

    http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/2686089?&cat=500&ppuser=183733

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  41. I am new to your blog, but I am so excited to do these trees. Christmas is over for 2015, but I will still do the card now so I won't forget how to. I am picturing the trees with a deer where you have the girl. If it turns out well, I will send you a picture. Thank you for an excellent blog.

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  42. Thanks for this tutorial.
    It's so simple and beautiful.
    I gonna try to make ik.

    Greetings from the Netherlands,
    Jooke sk

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  43. Thanks for sharing, can't wait to try it.

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  44. Thanks Norma! I like it. Your tress look great, and they were free hand which means - custom made! No two will be exactly the same which makes each one a limited edition card. Wish I knew about this technique years ago when I did a snowman theme on my Christmas cards... wonder what I can make this year and maybe use this technique. The only item I don't YET have is the fine tipped squeeze bottle. BIG thumbs up to you. Thanks so much for sharing. Blessings, Joanne

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  45. This tutorial is wonderful! The videos were incredibly helpful--without them I wouldn't have understood your technique...which, by the way, I think is pure genius! Thanks so much for taking the time to share your technique with us!

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  46. I actually have glue with a tip like that that dries white. Can't wait to try this! I'm sure your voice is just fine, but it was kind of nice not having someone feel the need to chatter on and fill the silence. And the videos weren't amateur-ish in my opinion. I was having trouble picturing the technique before watching them. Thank you so much for sharing!

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  47. I found this posted on Pinterest....I'm so glad you included the videos. I was stuck on "teardrop". Thanks for the tutorital.

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  48. You're so gracious to share this with us. Thanks!

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  49. Pinterest sent me one of those "pins you may like" messages & yours was highlighted. Even though you posted a number of years ago, I am grateful (especially that it is still available) This technique is new to me, can barely wait to try

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  50. Thanx to Pinterest, I saw your video. Love it. Your post was detailed, precise and easy to follow. Thank you for the technique. I can envision many different ways of using this process. Greatly appreciated.

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  51. While looking for ideas for this year's Christmas card I came across your tutorial. Can't wait to try it. I'm sure your voice would have sounded great, but you did such a wonderful job with the tutorial, no words were needed. Thanks for sharing!

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  52. Thank you so very much for sharing this simple technique on Pinterest. How kind of you to take the time to make the tutorial.
    I can't wait to use this technique this year to personalize the Christmas Cards I will be mailing out.
    Sharing the good things in life with others makes our world brighter and brings joy to the heart. Thanks for your lovely sharing and the joy it has brought to so many.
    Virginia

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Thanks for stopping by and giving me a bit of your time to leave a comment. Very much appreciate it. Norma