Kathy's Tree

 Hello Funky Followers!

This month's challenge has been set by Amanda

Christmas is all about the kids

so that's what I am setting for this month's theme.

Anything Christmassy for a child.  It can be anything you want........a card, a gift, a layout, a decoration ~ whatever your imagination can come up with.

It's me, Kathy here today with my idea for Amanda's challenge and I thought that maybe something that you could get the kids to help make  would fit the theme nicely.

So here's my little tree decoration - I think that they'd look really cute in a group of three, or maybe lined up on your windowsill - or change the star for a tiny name card and use them as place settings for the Christmas dinner table.

* Print a selection of the papers (I used the "Christmas Tree" download) on to thin card - print on BOTH sides of each sheet

* Use a die cutting machine such as the Cuttlebug to cut a few each of various sizes of a set of circle dies - I used the Spellbinders Large Scalloped Circles set, and used all but the largest of the dies.  My finished tree is about 17cms including the pot and star.  Varying which size dies you use will change the look of your tree.

" Cut a length of paper to make into a tightly rolled "tube" for the trunk of the tree - or cover something like a bamboo skewer or pencil to use for the trunk

* Divide the cut circles up into piles by size to make it easier to "build" the tree.

* The children will need help with this bit - poke a small hole in the centre of each circle, then use something like a bamboo skewer to make it bigger.  I then used a pencil and pushed that through the holes to make them big enough to slide onto my paper tree trunk.  You don't need to cut neat centre holes as the raggy bits you get from pushing the pencil through will adhere the circles to the trunk.

* Start building the tree, by adding some PVA glue around the trunk - leave the bottom 4cms clear for adding the pot later, then add glue to a few cms at a time and add the circles in order.  Wet glue allows you a bit of "wiggle-room" or drying time to rearrange the circles a little as you go.  Leave a few cms at the top to add the cone to the top and the star

* Cut one circle in half and form into a cone - make sure there's a small hole remaining at the top, big enough to poke a piece of wire into. Glue the cone in place and leave to dry

* Cut two identical star shapes and glue together, sandwiching one end of a short piece of wire between them.  Allow to dry thoroughly and then you can make a spiral in the spare wire if you wish.  Add some strong glue to the end of the wire and poke it into the hole in the cone at the top of the tree.

* Cover the star with Stickles if you wish

* For the pot I used a tightly spiralled length of card, which I glued to the base of the tree.  I squeezed a "ballast" layer of blu-tack around it then covered it with red paper.  - this is a bit of a faff so here are The  lid from a large used up Pritt Stick would be perfect

Small plastic pots could be cut down  eg empty large size Stickles pots 

Just make a pot shape from plasticine!

* Cover whatever you decide to use with coloured paper and use something to weight the tree down/. Not being a household with children in, I used blu-tack for weighting my tree - but something like plasticine would be perfect.

In "another life" I taught in Nursery and Primary Schools and I know the children would have loved making these.  Nothing needs to be too accurate as a bit of "wonkiness" adds to the character of the finished piece.  There's lots of counting and geometry skills involved, plus some good old cutting practise if you get them to make the circles themselves!

I hope you like this idea and will be having a go yourselves - I'd love to see them if you do.

Download papers are perfect for this as you can print off as many as you need - and more if you run out.  

That's my project all done, and I just need to remind you that to enter our challenge and be in with a chance of winning a gorgeous Download collections of your choice, all you have to do is make a project for this challenge ensuring that you use AT LEAST ONE FUNKY HAND PRODUCT,then link it via the Linky gadget below.

If you don't have any Funky Hand stash yet, you can use this month's Freebie from Anice which is available to download from the Funky Hand web site. 

Please don't just take the paper and run, use it and join in - you might win more lovely goodies from Funky Hand!

While you're on the Funky Hand web site for the freebie paper, please take an extra 10 minutes or so and have a look around. There are lots of new Christmas downloads at fabulous prices and each download has it's own gallery to (hopefully) give you a bit of inspiration.

Have fun, Happy Crafting

Kathy xx