DIY Scrapbook Paper Tree

Hello lovelies! I hope everyone is accomplishing some of their New Year's goals. One of my goals this year is to buy a house. I am already pre-approved, I just have to find the perfect one for me! That is a very hard thing, mind you. There are not a lot of "good" homes on the market, and there is a certain area I am looking to buy in. Not always the easiest task, but until then I am continuing to save my money, so that I can decorate my humble abode all cutesy. One of my goals for my house is to have lots of homemade decoration pieces in it. It would be really neat for me to look around and see things that either I made, or my friends made, just for my house. I saw this little project on Craftgawker a long time ago, added it to my favorites, and never forgot about it. It is this cute little tree in a vase with little fun-colored scrapbook leaves on branches. How creative! This is brought to you by Two Girls Being Crafty and I'm going to share the tutorial with you today! You can make the leaves any pattern or color you want. You can do a green and brown theme, a rainbow theme, or any theme you'd like. Your choice! Let me know what you come up with!



This simple project uses scrapbook paper leaves to create a bright and cheery Spring ambiance for your home. You could also use these beautiful trees in a wedding, baby shower, bridal shower, birthday party... the possibilities are endless!

What You Will Need:

Scrapbook paper  
Branches
Floral Wire (I used 24 gauge wire)
Glue (You can use scrapbook or tacky glue, but I just used good ole Elmers)
Scissors
Cardboard/cardstock/chipboard 
Vase or Pot to place your branches in
Newspaper 

The awesome thing is - you probably already have most of these supplies on hand. I only had to purchase the floral wire for a little over $1 (with a coupon). What an inexpensive way to bring Spring into your home!
  
Let's Get Started:




First, drag out your unseemly healthy assortment of scrapbook paper scraps. If you don't (yet) have a unreasonable amount of scrapbook paper (and everyone should), then just head over to your local craft store - Jo-Ann, Hobby Lobby, or Michaels and pick out your favorites.




Cut out a template of your leaf from the cardboard (you can also use chipboard or card-stock). I used two different sizes of leaves - one small and the other a lot larger. Try to make the leaves as symmetrical as possible (which I did not realize until later). This will help with pairing up a back and front leaf later on. Using your template, cut out as many leaves as you want. Cut them in even numbers because, again, you will be pairing them up later on.




Take your floral wire and cut strips anywhere from 5"-8" long. I know that's a big range, but I'm taking into account the different size leaves. If it's a larger leaf, you will want a few extra inches of wire. 




Lay down some newspaper next to your workspace. Take one of your leaves and put a thin strip of glue down the center. Place a piece of wire on the glue. Find a leaf of the same size and same scrapbook paper (or different paper- this is your project!) and place it on top of the glue, sandwiching the wire and forming a "vein" down the center of the leaf. Place your newly made leaves on the newspaper. Keep going until you've made all of your leaves. 




Now for the fun part! Start placing your leaves on your tree by wrapping the floral wire around a branch. You can arrange them in a natural way (as pictured above)...




...or make them funky.




And you're done! This project is so easy. You can make a huge tree or just make a small, simple one. Do ten of them for an event, or just create one for your humble abode. Either way, take this idea and run with it. You can create some Spring magic using only a few supplies!