Half-Circle Christmas Tree (or Angel) Card

I’m happy to be sharing this Christmas card technique with you.  I’ve been busy and I’m sneaking away from other tasks (like decorating our real Christmas tree which Rem is doing right now) so I can show you this cute card.  Maybe some of you aren’t super-organized and didn’t make your cards in July (ha!).  If that’s the case, and you’re looking for a fairly easy card that turns out great, look no further.

You early-bird crafters who have everything created, bought, baked, decorated, knit, wrapped and under the tree can mark this for next July when you’re doing your cards for Christmas 2013.

I started with some fairly traditional Christmas colors for my paper.

You need:

• Card stock for the base of the card – one half sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 inches is what I use for these (and most) cards
• Decorative paper for the background layer (3.75 x 5 inches works well)
• Double-sided decorative paper for the tree
• Embellishments as sparkly as stick-on crystals, pearls and glitter or as simple as a button are lovely to decorate your tree
• Brown ribbon or brown scrap paper will form the trunk of the tree.
• Pop-up adhesive dots to adhere the folds of the tree
• Double-sided tape
• Scissors
• Bone Folder
• Paper Trimmer (optional)

Use your favorite method for making a circle out of double-sided paper, whether it is a template, a Cricut or Sizzix machine.  Any circle-making tool you like will do.

Mine is very old-school: I traced a bowl with a pencil.  For my tree cards I was making circles that were about 6.5 inches across.  So however you make your circle, this is the time to do that…and cut it out.

Cut it in half.

Each half-circle will make one tree.

You’re going to have to experiment a bit but you want to make 4 folds, dividing the half-circle into 5 segments. Something like this (but don’t mark the lines with pencil, just use a bone folder or crease firmly with your fingers).

I sometimes fold it one way and then reverse the paper and fold it a second time so I can decide which way looks best.

This one has pencil marking the folds just to make them show even more.  Don’t do that.

When you fold the half circle into the finished triangle shape, you reverse the direction of each fold so both sides of your decorative paper show.  In other words, after making the first fold (I start with the smallest section), flip the circle over and make the next fold the other way.  In origami folding this is known as making a mountain fold followed by a valley fold, followed by a mountain fold and ending with a valley fold.

Once you’ve got your tree folded I think it looks best if you use pop-up adhesive dots to adhere the layers.  It adds some dimension to the tree.

The tree on the left was glued down flat, the tree on the right has adhesive dots between the layers.  Either way works.

Fold your piece of card stock in half to make the card and layer a piece of paper onto the front. Cut a snippet of brown ribbon or brown scrap paper to form the trunk of the tree and stick it on.  Adhere the tree to the card front with the trunk showing at the bottom.

Decorate the tree.  A simple red button is effective or go glam with rows of stick-on gems.

Add a greeting inside your card and a signature on the back and you’re done!

If you’d like to make an angel, start with a smaller circle so your finished triangular shape is a little smaller.  You need room for wings, the head and the halo!

Additional supplies for angel card:

• Plain or printed vellum or other paper for the wings
• Pink scrap of card stock for head
• Metallic cord or other yarn or thread for hair
• Gold pen to draw halo
• Markers for facial details and wing embellishment
• 1.5 inch Scalloped Circle Punch to punch out wings (optional)

Create a head for your angel and draw on a face.  I braided some metallic cord and adhered that to the head for hair.

Because of the thickness of the finished triangle (our angels gown), I adhered the head on a pop-up adhesive dot.

Wings were punched from printed vellum using a scalloped circle punch.  I folded them in half, added some embellishment with white gel pen and gold markers and adhered them behind the angels dress.

A gold marker makes the halo.  Angelic.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you are finding time during this hectic season for doing the things that you love that make it feel like Christmas to you.