A Paper Forest

I was quite inspired by the paper tree I bought a few weeks ago at the fair trade store....it was just a matter of time before I gave it a try.  I was supposed to be organizing and cleaning my craft room...but as soon as I got a space on my craft table big enough to work...I ditched the cleaning and made this tree.

I topped it off with a little paper star...also from a book page. The base is from a local craft store.  It's actually a little wooden plate for a doll house that I drilled a hole in and turned upside down.

I've made three so far...and here's my little forest.  It's kind of hard to tell...but there is a little bit of glitter on the tip of each branch.  The one on the left has red tips...the middle is gold...and the one on the right is white like snow.  Much easier to see in person.

 These were my supplies...and of course book pages.

I started by doing a quick green water color wash on several pages.  Like the inspiration tree, I didn't want to completely cover the pages....just a hint of green. The books are from the Goodwill Store and I don't pay attention to the content...jut the feel and look of the paper.  This one is about the Mayflower....I probably should pay more attention to content too.

I ran liquid glitter along the bottom edge before I cut the strips.  (Yes, I make a big mess when I work.)  I let the glitter dry overnight.

Next I cut out a piece about 1 1/2 by 3 and sliced the paper up to about 1/4 inch from the top.

At first I attached it using glue...but it was messy and the book pages are not that strong so the paper would start to fall apart easily.

So I switched to my favorite red craft tape. A tape runner would work...but the one I had on hand wasn't "running" well for some reason.

I put a piece of the two sided red tape along the top of the backside.  Once I peeled the red backing off I rolled it around the skewer.  I also learned from practice that before I peeled off the red backing it was much easier to curl the paper before I attached it to the skewer by wrapping it around a pencil.  If I forgot to curl it...like the photo below, I just curled a few branches at a time after it was attached...again, using the pencil.  The curls are important!                                                                                                                 

Then I just kept filling in and layering while moving up the skewer until it was the size and fullness I wanted.  Finally I clipped off the top of the skewer and topped it off with a star using super tacky glue.

This was fun and easy and I am certain I will make more.  I will keep perfecting my process and may experiment with some other papers.