O Christmas Tree

This is only my second post. I knew posting online took some effort, but I now have a whole new respect for all the lovely sites in Blogdom. Despite a two hour battle with my free nine year old digital camera, I think there are finally a couple of shots that will allow me to share this week's  Papertrey Make It Monday #40.

The reverse applique is a fun technique, and I absolutely adore Papertrey's dies. There are two pics of the same view because I could not capture the paper colors and the mylar thread in the same shot. (The golden glints look swell in person, but my camera skills are lacking.)  The colors in the picture below are closer to true life.

Only the 'PEACE' is reverse appliqued.  It was much easier to pierce around the word, and just back stitch, than I thought it would be. The openings in the p, e, a were added after the perimeter stitching, and in order to place those pieces, I reinserted the cut out word into the opening, and with a bit of glue, tacked the small parts in place. These are also stitched.

 NOTE: There was one trick that made the pre-punching of the sew holes easier. I placed two or three layers of scrap cardstock between the card front and the pad I was using. With the tiny pieces, even my very sharp needle wanted to rip the gold background paper. I discovered this trick also worked well on long straight edges where 'paper fatique' would be a problem.

The garland was not appliqued, but was just stitched to the green paper and placed behind the tree die opening. Again, the holes were pre-made.  By cutting the tree from copy paper, and temporarily adhering the negative piece it to the front of the green paper, I could use the paper piercer and make just the thread holes I needed. I removed the copy paper template and simply back-stitched. Voila.

One last bit of info. The glorious patterned paper is a scan of a Hoffman Christmas fabric from about four years ago. Hoffman is my favorite fabric house, but this print is to die for.  I have the fabric, but can't bring myself to cut it, so maybe this card will help break down that inhibition. (If Hoffman's prints were on paper, I'd own them all.)

Hope this all makes sense. Thanks for visiting.

SUPPLIES
Dies - Papertrey: In the Meadow Silhouettes Die Collection, Wonderful Words: Holiday
Die Collection
Papers - Bazill swiss dot (navy blue), Paper Company (gold)