Crafting Ireland Issue 20

Issue 20 November 2013

I r elan d’ s f irst on lin e craf t mag azine. . ..

In s i de t hi s i s sue

C h r i s t m a s Tr e e A r t W in te r Tag

Pillow Gif t Box

WELCOME to Issue 20 of Crafting Ireland!

Welcome to Issue 20—our final issue in magazine format!!

Crafting Ireland had been set up as a free magazine so we and our team can share crafting and inspiration with everyone. However the magazine format is very time consuming to put together. So we have taken the difficult decision to stop producing the magazine‌. !!!! HOWEVER !!!!

We will still be keeping our blog and our fabulous design team and we will instead be doing the tutorials only online and not in the magazine and online also. We hope that you will all still follow along with us in this format.

We will still have the same fun and wide range of tutorials for you all.

We are excited by this small change in direction and hope you all are

View all previous issues at www.craftingirelandonline.ie 2

too. This issue will be the final issue of the magazine in the traditional format. We hope you all enjoy it! Thank you to all of you for following us in this journey and we hope to see you all stay around and follow us over on our blog, website and Facebook!

So enjoy the read and we hope back to school time has gone well and that you have a fantastic Christmas!

Don’t forget you can keep up to date with us on our BLOG WEBSITE, FACEBOOK and PINTEREST page.

Happy Crafting!!

The Crafting Ireland Team

Nicol e

Timi 3

Editors note............................................p2 Scrap Paper Cards .................................... p6 Altered Alpha Photo Holder ....................p10 Pillow Gift Box ...................................... p13 DIY Christmas Wrapping Ideas .................p16 Wo n d e r f u l W i n t e r Ta g . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p 1 8 C h r i s t m a s Tr e e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p 2 2 Spotlighted Crafter ................................ p25 F r a m e d C h r i s t m a s Tr e e A r t . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p 2 8 A l t e r e d Te a L i g h t H o l d e r . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p 3 0 Mini Christmas Banner ...........................p32 4

G i f t C a r d H o l d e r. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p 3 5 Cookie Cutter Ornaments ........................p39 Winter Fun Mini Album...........................p42 P a p e r S p o o l Tr e e s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p 4 6

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I am well known for my hatred of throwing out scraps. I always try to use them no matter how small they are. So I came up with this idea to use up my last year Christmas paper scraps before I go buying any more papers!

Nicole Mullen

What you will need:

 Scrap paper  Adhesive  Card base  Ribbon  Stamps/card toppers/embellishments of your choice

Step 1 Create your card base. Then cut a scrap of paper or card to go on top of your base. It can be the same size of your card if you want. I chose to make mine slightly smaller so that it would be matted on to the card base.

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Step 2 Gather scraps that you feel work together. I used 2-3 different paper lines, I just used similar colours so that they played nice with one another!

Step 3 Ink the edges of your scraps—I used Festive Berries red distress ink. Lay them out on your scrap base in a pattern you like. I tried to be quite random.

I used my tape runner to adhere them all down to the base then.

Step 4 Trim off the excess pieces so you are left with your piece the original size of the scrap piece.

Step 5 Keep the small pieces you cut off. We can use these to repeat the process on another scrap panel!

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Step 6 Adhere the smaller pieces on to the scrap—you will need to make a pattern almost like a wooden floor as they wont be long enough to cover the panel in one go. This gives a very cool effect however.

Again trim off the excess pieces when done. These pieces were even too small for me to keep so they went into the recycling bin!

Step 7 Create some sentiments for your card. I used some digital sentiments that I printed on white card.

I inked them up with Frayed Burlap Distress Ink to age them and used a corner chomper to round the corners to look like tickets. I added a bit of colour on one of them with gel pens.

Step 8 Add some ribbon with red line tape (or any adhesive of your preference). Once the ribbon is on adhere the panels to your card base. I like glossy accents for this stage as a wet glue allows you some wriggle time to get the position of the panel right.

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Step 9 Add the sentiments on foam adhesive for some more interest and you are done.

You can embellish more if you wish.

These are very easy to make and look great!

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I found a LOVE alpha photo holder in a local shop and I knew I wanted to paint it and decorate it with some chipboard elements.

What you will need:  Photo holder  Watermark Resist Ink Pad  Acrylic paints  Chipboard elements Step 1 Apply some of the watermark resist on the photo holder. Let it dry a little bit and then apply some light coloured paint. Make sure that you water down the acrylic paint, otherwise it might just cover the whole photo holder and there won’t be any watermark effect left You can see in the pictures below the watermark effect:

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Timi Konya

Step 2 When the first layer of paint is dry, apply the watermark ink again to the photo holder.

Add a darker colour acrylic paint as we did in Step 1.

Step 3 Create a dripping paint effect with a brush and watered down acrylic paint.

Step 4 Take the chipboard pieces and ink them with distress ink or any other medium.

Step 5 For a more 3D effect, cover the chipboard elements with Glossy accents.

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Step 6 Cut out some text that you want to add to the photo holder. I chose: So in LOVE with you. I designed it with my eCraft and cut it out from patterned paper.

If you don’t have an electronic cutting machine, you can simply die cut some letters and create words with those.

Step 7 Adhere all the words and chipboard elements to the photo holder. All the chipboard elements are from Scrapfellow.com. Fill it with some photos and enjoy!

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Today we will make a little pillow gift box. You Katya Ivanova can use it for pieces of jewellery, gift cards or fill it with craft goodies or sweets for your friends. Decorated with appropriate embellishments it can be used for any occasion.

What you will need:  Cardstock  scrap paper  Punch  CD disk  ribbon and lace  Embellishments Step 1 Cut out a square measuring 15cm by 15cm from the cardstock.

Step 2 Score the cardstock at 7cm twice. Then we are left with 1cm strip which will be where we glue the box together.

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Step 3 Taking the disk to the edge trace around it with a score tool- four sides facing outwards and four sides facing in.

Step 4 Cut out the box template and run the scissor blade along the edges to get a good crease.

Step 5 Now moving onto decorating the box- cut a piece of paper measuring 16cm by 10cm and then punch the sides.

Step 6 Distress the edges of the scrap paper and the box itself to make it look shabbier.

Step 7 Glue a bit of lace around the box and tie some ribbon at the top. Add a few embellishments and you are done!

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Do you use Pinterest? If you do then you know the wealth of ideas that can be drawn from it! If you don’t already use it, you need to check it out not just for crafting but even for everyday life.

Aideen Fallon

If you would like to see my Pinterest page this is where you will find me: http://www.pinterest.com/piecesbyaideen/ boards/ So for this article I just want to talk about DIY Christmas wrapping ideas-I have created a board for this on my Pinterest page-it is the one titled ‘DIY wrapping’. If you click on the board you will see all the photo inspirations I ‘pinned’.

So I tried out some ideas I picked up from my browsing, first I gathered just a few simple supplies from the ole stash. I also wanted to use a cute stamp for this so I just recently got this fun set from Drew at scrappyhappiness.com he has designed these sets himself and even has a stamp club!

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These stamps are really nice and I just love the deer one-perfect for a Nordic present wrapping paper!

I just stamped the deer repeatedly onto some plain brown parcel paper and I love the result.

A little bit of twine, a Scrapfellow chipboard piece and a mini peg and it makes a cute little gift!

For the next gift I used a kraft box from my stash with just some scrap music note paper, ink and another Scrapfellow chip, I really like the vintage feel of this gift.

So they are just some quick ideas-why not try some DIY wrapping of your own & pin your creations on Pinterest to inspire more people!

I got this fun ‘Pinned’ stamp from my friend Melissa-love it!!

Thanks for reading, 17 Aideen x

I wanted to create some fun snow/Winter themed tags this year so when I saw the Glistening Collection from Authentique, I knew right away the projects I wanted to create.

Abby Henderson

What you will need:  Paper or Card Stock (winter themed)  Foil Sheets (regular foil will work as well)  Wood Embellishments  Distress Paint (White Picket Fence)  Stickles (I used Star Dust)  Glimmer Sprays/Spritz (colors of your choice)  Ribbon (I used silver)  Sand  Heat Tool  Flat Back Pearls & Bling  Doily  Fabric (if you choose)  Vellum (I used metallic silver)  Dies (I used a tag & winter themed die for the snowflakes)  Texture Folder (I used a snowflake/winter theme)  Adhesive of your choice (I used Scor-tape)  Corner Punch (if you want a decorative edge on the tag)

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Step 1 I cut some snowflakes from the sliver metallic velum and some fabric. I then added some Stickles to the cut images and then set them aside to dry while I worked on the rest of the tag.

Step 2 I measured out how large I wanted the tag to be and cut it from a piece of card stock from the Glistening collection and then used my corner punch to create a decorative edge.

Step 3 Next I used my snowflake texture folder on one of the foil sheets. Before I adhered the foil sheet to the tag, I used some Lindy's sprays to create some additional color and texture.

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Step 4 I used another die to cut a tag image from the same sheet of metallic vellum. I then used more of the Lindy's spray and some Distress Paint in Picket Fence to create some additional texture and color.

Step 5 I used more of the Picket Fence Distress ink to cover the wood snowflake piece. While it was still wet, I poured some white craft sand on top. After drying it with my heat tool, I then used more of the Lindy's spray and some Dylusions White Paint spray to add some additional texture and color.

Step 6 I used my Prima distress tool to fray the ends of some silver ribbon that I used to top off the tag and that was also included within the tag itself.

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After all of my elements were dry, I began layering the different items on the tag and used Scor-tape to secure everything once I had it placed

where I wanted. This is the fun part, you can layer and create your tag as you wish once you've made all of your embellishments as I showed you above.

This tag can be added to a gift bag, used as a card or even used to embellish a 12x12 layout.

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What you will need:  White cardstock  White Crepe paper  Hot glue  Glitter Glue  Pearls, mini roses  Chipboard stars  White gesso or Acrilyc paint

Andrea Kovacs

This Christmas tree is about 12 inch tall. We will create it from one sheet of 12x12 cardstock.

Step 1 Draw a quarter of a circle on the cardstock and cut it out..

Step 2 Mark the where you are going to adhere it together and cut off the excess. I used double sided tape to glue the two sides together.

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Step 3 Take the crepe paper roll and cut off about 2.5 inches. Fold it into half, don’t worry about being very precise.

Step 4 Take the crepe paper in between your fingers and pull it a little bit, it will make nice frills in the paper.

Step 5 Do this for the whole role. It’ll take a little bit of time, but is totally worth the effort.

Step 6 Then start to glue it on the Christmas tree. When you get to the very top arrange the crepe paper nicely, so no glue or tape is showing.

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Step 7 Now it is time to decorate! Use glitter glue to add interest to the edges. I used some beads and flowers too.

Step 8 For the top: Take two chipboard stars, a smaller and a bigger.

Try to place the small one in the bigger star. Glue them together and then on the top with some hot glue. Paint it white. You can add some glitter to the top star too.

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Patricia O’ Leary In every issue we will be spotlighting the work of an Irish based crafter. We will look at paper crafters, scrapbookers, and altered art aficionados. If you think you know someone who you think sound be spotlighted let us know at info@craftingirelandonline.ie Tell us a bit about yo ur sel f‌.

I'm from Co Wexford, brought up in the beautiful fishing village of Fethard on- Sea right next to the famous Hook Lighthouse. I now live in Co Carlow again in a nice little village. I work as a freelance designer creating unique pieces and cards from paper and card and all that's blingy grungy etc etc. I also teach papercrafting and art to adults, children and especially people with special needs..... To pay the bills I now work as a care assistant.

When and ho w di d you get i nv ol v ed w i th paper cr a f t i ng?

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My grandmother had me doing fine crochet age 4 and I think I've always been crafting and cutting up things. My mother was a brilliant knitter and all their great skills were passed on to me I suppose I started serious papercrafting through my painting which was

1999, that's when I moved to Carlow, I joined an art group (to meet people) and my first cards were made using some of my paintings.

What is you r fav ouri te aspe ct of paper cra f tin g?

I find it hard to name one favourite aspect cause I love trying new things. I love distressing I love girly things lace and ribbons and combining all these is probably my favourite.

What are th e techni qu es th at you use m ost of the ti m e?

The techniques I use most are distressing, creating different backgrounds from scratch, also use a lot of recycled stuff. I hardly ever use bought flowers preferring to make my own.

What are y ou r "can't do w i thout" pr oduc ts?

My can't do without products are good cardstock, lots of Tim Holtz goodies, ribbons, lace,buttons.

What inspires you?

I take my inspiration from everyday things. Ideas come to me from the things I see around me. I also take inspiration from other crafters but always try to make my pieces original. I also make most of them one offs.

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How do you d escr i be y our styl e?

I have a childlike style and its very free hardly ever straight ha ha don't do straight.

Do you blog? Wher e ca n w e see your w or k ?

My blog is www.smaointeiontacha.blogspot.com. Smaointe Iontacha means wonderful thoughts in gaeilge(our irish language) Hav e you any pl ans for the futur e?

My plans for the future are to continue creating, enjoy my crafting. I would like to get more workshops and get involved in bigger events to meet other crafters. I would like to master colouring and altering objects.

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I love decorating the house for the holidays. And it is even better when I can create something of my own.

Mary Jo Rhoda

One of my favorite go to projects is simply creating a small page with my scrapbook product and using a picture frame to display it. Frames can be an inexpensive way to showcase your designs.

For this project, I used some patterned paper and punches to create a simple home décor piece that I will be displaying this Christmas.

What you will need:  Shape Punches  Patterned Paper (I used Christmas themed paper)  Gold Foil paper  Stamps  Stamping ink  Cardstock Step 1 I first gathered the supplies I wanted to use including the cardstock, punches and patterned paper. I cut a piece of white cardstock so it would fit in the frame where a photo would typically go.

Step 2 For the trunk of my tree, I used a wood grain stamp. I simply stamped the image on white cardstock, and then punched a piece out with my square punch. Then I inked around the edges.

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Step 3 I then proceeded to punch several circles out of the patterned paper. Once I had them placed exactly where I wanted them, I inked around the edges as I did with the square tree trunk.

I also punched a star out of a piece of gold foil paper to use as a star at the top of my tree. I placed it on a pop dot.

Step 4 I then cut out several tiny presents from one of the sheets of patterned paper. I thought they were so cute!

Step 5 You may notice in the final photo that I actually cut the tree trunk a little thinner. I wasn’t quite happy with the thicker trunk, and this felt like a better size.

My Christmas Tree Frame is now ready to be displayed!

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In my family everybody loves yoghurts, especially the handmade ones that you can buy in little glass jars.

I decided to keep those jars and create some tealight holders.

Timi Konya

What you will need:  Small jars  Ribbon, pom-pom trim  Opaque white markers  Hot glue Step 1 Wash the jars and remove all paper and glue.

Step 2 Draw white dots like falling snow on the jars. You can draw any pattern you like.

Step 3 Glue the pompom trim and ribbon on tha jars with hot glue.

This was a very quick and fun way to alter these little yoghurt jars.

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To all our wonderful readers, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

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Here is a short tutorial for mini Christmas banners – they are small & cute!

Felicia Thomas

What you will need:  Old playing cards  Christmas design paper & Red card  Eyelets, Ribbon & Glitter or stickles  Thickers (or similar lettering)  Adhesive  Corner rounder & Small circle punch  Crop-a-dile (or other eyelet setter)  On the edge die or decorative scissors.

 Step 1 Cover the cards with patterned paper on both sides.

Step 2 Cut a decorative strip of red card- I used the “Ornate” On the Edge die from Tim Holtz.

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Step 3 I added some DecorArt “Snow-tex” which gives a lovely textured finish.

Step 4 I covered the lettering in gold glitter – I chose “Ho Ho Ho” as my sentiment.

You could make 4 cards and add “Noel” – make as many cards as you need for your chosen letters.

Step 5 Add eyelets to each card 2 to each card and thread the ribbon through these.

Step 6 Next, using a contrasting design paper cut strips approximately 1cm x 30cm – I made 4 as I had 3 cards.

Step 7 Concertina fold the strips every centimetre (it doesn’t have to be exact.)

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Step 8 Glue the ends together and then secure the rosette onto a circle of paper to secure it.

Step 9 Glue the rosettes at the front & end and between each card and there you have your mini garland!

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I wanted to create some cute little gift card/money holders in preparation for Christmas. These could be used year round however. All you need to do is decorate them apropriately for the occasion.

Nicole Mullen

What you will need:  Cardstock  Decorative papers  Embellishments—ribbon, washi tape, pearls etc  Adhesive  Scissors Step 1 Cut a srtip of card stock to 4 1/4” high x 11” long. You will get two of these from one sheet of 12x12 cardstock.

Step 2 Score at 3”, 8 1/2” and again at 18 1/2”.

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Step 3 Fold your card on the score lines into the mountain shape seen here.

Step 4 In order to create a pocket in this fold we need to glue the base of the mountain together. You can see a pencil mark outlining where to glue in the image on the right. Only glue around the edges as marked by the line—do not glue in the middle at all!!

Step 5 Once your glue is dry you will need to trim off a bit of the ’tip of the mountain’. This will open up the pocket you have just created—at the moment it is a fully sealed pocket.

Step 6 Once trimmed to open the pocket use a circle punch to make a notch out of it so you can slip a gift card in and out easily.

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Step 7 Once you have this assembled it is ready to decorate. I used white card for mine and decorated with panels on the front and inside of the holders. You could use patterned paper to make the holders too if you wished.

I made a panel for the front and back of my holders as well as some paper for the inside of them.

These holders give you lots of space to write a note just like a card would. It makes getting a gift card that bit more interesting too! You can see two of my decorated holders below.

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I’ve never been the world’s greatest baker, but I do enjoy using kitchen products in my crafts whenever I can!

Andrea Ockey Parr

These Christmas Cookie Cutters make darling ornaments. Metal or plastic cookie cutters in holiday shapes.

What you will need:  Patterned paper or colored cardstock  Hot glue  Glitter, sequins or shiny flakes  Holiday embellishments  Ink and stamps (if desired) Step 1 Start by tracing around your cookie cutter onto cardstock or patterned paper.

Step 2 Cut out your traced cookie-cutter shape.

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Step 3 If you want to add text or pictures or shading to your paper shape, now is the time!

I stamped mine with some polka dots and also shaded it with some green ink to give it a little more visual depth.

Step 4 This can be a bit tricky, but using hot glue (or some other adhesive of your choice), cover the edge of the cookie cutter with glue and adhere it to your corresponding paper shape.

Don’t worry if the glue is gloppy on the inside because that will be covered up with glitter anyway.

Once the glue dries, you can also shave or peel it off around the outside edges if it got messy.

Step 5 Drizzle either hot glue or another glue of your choice around the inside edges of your cookie cutter and shake on some glitter, sequins, shiny flakes, etc..

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Step 6 Use festive twigs or patterned paper sentiments, stickers, or stamped words or images to complete your decorative ornaments.

Here are some other examples made with different cookie cutter shapes and embellishments.

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Papermania came out with a new winter/Christmas collection called Christmas in the country. The whole collection has a Scandinavian feel with all the raindeers and cross-stiching pattern.

Timi Konya

I thought it would be fun to combine these patterns with an acrylic mini album base.

What you will need:  Acrylic mini album (Maya Road)  Papermania Christmas in the country 6x6 paper pack  Embossing ink  White embossing powder  Adhesive  Embellishments Step 1 Take off the protective foil from the acrylic pages. Stamp snowflakes with embossing ink in the corners and heat emboss it with white embossing powder.

I heat embossed some pages with white embossing powder and some other pages with clear. You can see the result below.

Don’t worry these acrylic pages are heat resistant as much as you need for heat embossing.

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Step 2 Cut down the patterned paper to size. This paper collection is single sided so I decided to glue two pieces of patterned paper together and adhere them to the acrylic pages that way. To match the acrylic pages round all the corners with a corner rounder.

Step 3 Start layering the papers on the acrylic pages. At this stage it is a good idea to assemble the book.

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Step 4 Prepare the embellishments. I used Scrapfellow chipboard elements and coloured them with inks and markers.

Step 5 Cut photomats out of patterned paper.

I tried to use more solid ones or ones with less pattern for this.

Step 6 Decorate the front, add a title and there you have a fun winter mini album.

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I wanted to create some little paper Christmas trees for some décor, using some lovely vintage looking papers. These are super fast and easy and can be made to match any colour scheme.

Nicole Mullen

What you will need:  Paper (lighter weight is best)  A spool  A straw  Scissors  Glue  Circle cutters or dies Step 1 Die cut circles from your papers. I cut 4 circles of 3 different sizes. The more circles you have the bigger your tree.

Step 2 Fold the circle in half, then half again, then again and then again—4 times in total. It gets difficult on the last fold if you are using small circles!

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Step 3 Snip the tip off the triangle you end up with—just take a small amount off.

You can see this in the image on the right above.

Step 4 Open your circle up and accordion fold all the crease lines from the folding.

Step 5 Repeat this process for all your circles.

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Step 6 Take your spool and put your straw into it. I had to double the end of my straw as my spool had a un-naturally large hole in the middle.

Step 7 Stack your circles onto the straw. When you get to the second last circle put it on and trim the excess off the straw.

Step 8 Use some wet glue on the top of the strap and finish off your tree with the last and smallest circle.