Glittery Christmas trees

I never really got a lot of use out of my Brother Scan-n-Cut — it was always hard work trying to get a clean cut from it — in theory it should have been great, but in practice I just didn’t get on with it. Then my other half bought me a Cricut Maker and I was determined that it wouldn’t just sit taking up desk space. And it is so much easier to use. There is still a bit of experimenting finding the right settings for some materials, but once I have, it works reliably.

I’d had a few little plays with it, but I thought I should give it a proper run and use it to make a batch of Christmas cards. There are so many Christmas tree cut files out there, but after a bit of browsing I found this set of six, paid my money, downloaded, and promptly ignored them for a few weeks.

With Christmas getting closer, I finally woke up the Cricut, did a little test cut, and cut them all out. No problem.

The card design was simple: use torn paper as masks for the snowy landscape with a selection of blue Distress inks, add the tree, and then add the glitter.

Simple, but not quick. Adding all that glitter did take a while and some of it was quite fiddly — a cocktail stick was the perfect tool for easing it into some of those narrow spaces — but it was satisfying to do and I really like the result.

Supplies:

• cut files:
  Christmas Trees SVG Cut-Files
• inks:
  Distress oxides – tumbled glass, broken china, faded jeans, chipped sapphire
• embellishments:
  Imagination Crafts detail sparkle – silver gilt, gold gilt, golden sage, purple velvet, berries, white shimmer
• paper and card:
  Papermill Direct – plain dark green
  Papermill Direct ultra white pearlised card
  Papermill Direct White Super Smooth Card Blanks
• tools:
  Cricut Maker