Background Treatments & Origami Christmas Tree Tutorial.

Hi everyone.. I am so excited because this month Lucy Chesna Design December Layout Sketch is a double pager. I love doubles. When I am not given a double I either use 2 of her singles to make a double or make up the other half from the original. Double can be joined by many ways... either colour, accents, a flowing border, shapes and of course theme too.So on this first sample I started with page 2 ( i know that is weird but it had the 2 photos).The theme is Halloween and the pumpkin patch. I grabbed the photos, some papers and ripped the border that I wanted to flow across the page.It was looking pretty drab and needed something before I even started.So gathering some of my bigger misc background stamps, the Memento ink I was ready to add to the background... hence the background treatment.The orange piece I stamped with the circular image 4 times in each quarter section.And the full background I decided to divide into 4 quarters again but did opposite corners- opposite image.With that done the above shows the finished background look.I applied the same background treatment to the left side as you can see below.This is a closer look at the background stamping.So here is the finished left side. I added some rubons, stickers, journal stickers and a title. The spider web paper was perfect addition on this side. The rustic textured look was perfect for the Halloween page.

Here is the finished right side. So from left to right you have the background, the border and the colouring to make the flow across. On this side I added some paint behind the title which is a rubon and added some really cute stickers.Here is the double together using Lucy's amazing double page sketch.For sample #2 I thought I'd use some stamping again but use totally different background treatment to pull this double pager together.I loved this piece of paper and I had 2 of them but don't always like the same background paper on both sides... so grabbed a plain cardstock to go with it. (below a few photos)I wanted to fussy cut from the 2nd piece and use the bottom border to flow across to the 2nd page.I started by grabbing my photo and cricut cutting a Title. OMG it really looked naked? I really didn't want to cover the scalloped circle with more paper because the shape was so pretty.I put a rough paper mask on everything but the white scalloped circle so I could stamp it about 3-4 times with the snowflakes. It was the perfect touch it needed.I was happy with just adding red matting to the title and the photo and I fussy cut the 2nd piece of paper I had saved and popped up the poinsettia and added some stickles for sparkle to the berries and some of the leaves.NOW for the 2nd side on the plain cardstock. I only had one photo instead of 2 so OMG it popped into my head instantly... trees.. stamped and OMG ... the origami xmas tree too. It was perfect.So leaving enough space on the left side for the photo and the subtitle on the top left side I stamped a smaller tree, estimated the origami tree size and cricut cute another tree for a fabulous grouping. On the bottom right I stamped a small section to base the trees to. The extra sheet also had the base border so the flow from left to right with the same border. (this strip is therefore lower on my pages than in the sketch but that's my alteration to the page)I really liked the way it was coming together but still way to plain.

I added gem stones to the tree, glossy accented the title, added the sticker tree border, matted the photo, added a upper corner accent with more burgundy accent colour and added a few more smaller snowflakes.

Here is my double all put together. It has flow created through colour, matting and burgundy colour, bottom base, snowflakes, Christmas theme and photos.

And today for those of you that have learned how to make the Origami Xmas Tree below is the video to help you along. This original was taught to me by none other than Lucy. I am always so happy to pass it along and share this amazing tree design. It is amazing on layouts and also on xmas cards.