Hi Everyone - Lowri here.

I have a couple of ideas you can create easily with leftover bits and pieces from any of your papers. They certainly wouldn't have to be Christmas papers and in fact plain cardstock jazzed up with some gold or silver paints and sprays would look fantastic!

Border Punch Trees
I was inspired to create these by a picture I saw on a blog-post by Lolly Chessie - an AMAZING artist in the US who is on the DT for Crate Paper http://www.lollychops.com/lollychops/2010/07/warning-gratuitous-crafts-alert.html
Now she is a real artist and these trees she created are just awesome - so here is my version!

Kaisercraft "Be Merry" Tree


To create the tree I started with a four sided, tall triangle made of paper. I then glued pieces of border punched paper to each side in turn using double sided tape and trimmed off each side after glueing.

You could use any border punch and any paper for some really neat effects.

I cut a shorter cone from the same template to slip over the top - mainly because I couldn't figure out how to finish the top neatly! I also foolishly cut my paper cone out of scrap paper that did not at all blend in with the PP I was using on the tree, so I have attached some painted bamboo skewers down the sides to cover up! It actually gives a bit more definition to the tree too





Cosmo Cricket "Jolly by Golly" Tree

This was the first one I made and really I learned from this that the pieces should not be too close together and look much better when more "random".


I also learned from this to cut each piece as I glued and NOT to leave it until I had done a complete side and then try and trim the sides!




Ruffled Flowers
These flowers are so hot right now! Tina has used them to fabulous effect on her banner she posted yesterday.  I have created these really simple ones with the Kaisercraft Be Merry Collection and Cosmo Cricket Papers.

I have a tutorial on my blog on how I made them - so please check it out here - http://papervinenz.blogspot.com/2010/12/ruffle-flowers-with-tutorial.html

Kaisercraft "Be Merry" Flowers



Cosmo Cricket "Jolly by Golly" Flowers



Cone Paper Trees


OK - so my husband has said these look like three paper cones stacked on top of one another - and I have to say I agree with him!!! However - I think there is definitely a possibility of doing something a little more creative with them - I just ran out of time though! I found the template here and for the larger tree just enlarged it on the computer.