I have Tree Love!

   No, I am not out hugging any trees or anything like that.  I have a wonderful kit from the new Nikki Sivils collection, Tree Love. I can not tell you how very excited I was/ am for the opportunity to play with these gorgeous papers. I was also excited to hear, that Nikki herself was going to have a contest as part of the Sketch-a-thon at Sketches for All. It's always a lot of fun to see how different people will interpret the same sketch. It's even more interesting when several people have the same kit. Who knows what each person will come up with!?!? It's like a little paper adventure.

So now, I sat with ATG and scissors in hand, armed and ready with Nikki's sketch and her example.
                                     

Sketch Nikki Made for the Sketch-a-thon. Now how cool is that!

Nikki's example. ( I wish I had a dog like this one! Isn't he just awesome!)

 I had a wonderful selection of the 12x12 papers from Tree love, the matching 6x6 stack and some interesting embellies to choose from. I just had one problem...on one particular piece of 12x12 paper, I was in love with both sides but only had 1 piece! Now what's a girl to do? Get creative, that what!

So, I cut the tree border from one side. I then flipped the paper over.

I gathered my paper piercer, a pencil, and my plastic canvas square(which I use as a template). I then carefully marked and pierced holes to stitch the two pieces back together. * You want to be very careful not to pierce to close to the edge, as the paper will rip. Flimsy paper is also not easy to work with. You need a nice, heavy weight paper, like Nikki Sivils' so that the paper does not crumple as you work.

I next took some DMC floss and began stitching a zig zag pattern. So that the paper would stay better aligned, I stopped part way and then went to the other side of the paper. This anchored the two sheets together, which also made stitching the rest much easier.

* Just make sure, that if you choose to stitch a pattern as I did, that the  pattern will properly meet up in the center. Also, don't pull hard on the thread. You want it taut, but if you pull too hard, you will warp the paper and make it uneven.

The stitching reinforces the paper and holds it together. You could also just choose to adhere a strip of cardstock as reinforcement, rather than taking the time to stitch. if you don't want the slit to show, then substitute a paper border for the stitching.

Little tricks like these allow me to make the most of coordinating pattern papers. I will also say, that I LOVE 6x6 pads of paper. Though small, they pack a lot of bang for your buck. I used 1 sheet of the Tree Bark paper on the LO above. I simply cut blocks from it, inked the edges with Colorbox dark brown ink and adhered in the mosaic pattern shown. To make the leaf embellies, I punched the leaves from a 6x6 sheet of Be green paper and used my black marker to draw the lines. I drew 2-3 sets of lines to mimic the black lines on the trees of the border design. As you can see, Tree Love was the perfect paper to bring out the rich color of the caramel and that warm,cozy feeling of Fall. Everything on my page is from Nikki Sivils collection except for, the DMC floss, the ribbon(found in my scraps) and the title( which is an October Afternoon rub-on).

I also made a card utilizing Nikki's sketch. It's very easy to use card or LO sketches for any paper craft. Just remember this simple rule: You don't work for the sketch, the sketch works for you.

So be creative with what is around you. To see how my fellow DT girls interpreted Nikki Sivils' sketch, come on over to Sketches for All. I hope you'll also share your interpretation with us. If you do...you might even win a prize!