Challenge Time at Decorate To Celebrate: Grandparents Day

MY STORY

    Earlier this summer, my friend asked for help in decorating for her Grandmother's 100th birthday party.  She really wanted to utilize some family photos and to keep it after the party was over for her Grandmother to enjoy.  I went through my stash and found an item I had wanted to use for  a while.  But it was a vintage Easter egg tree for a centerpiece from Oriental Trading Company.  So I put my thinking hat on and used the item in another way (which I love to do!!!)  And it was less than $5.00.  But now I need to think of something for next Easter.

YOUR TURN

    This is how the original product is supposed to be used.

    For my friend's project, I used:

• One of the trees
• The cardboard that came in the packaging
• Some of the eggs
  

     Step One:  Find complementary papers to glue onto the cardboard as your base.  I liked the green of the tree so went with similar colors.  You probably won't have paper large enough to cover so I used 2 different papers and laid them out accordingly. Lay out however you like.  

     Step Two:  Adhere your tree to the center of the board. HINT:  I traced this tree out a couple of times.  I have one leftover from the original package, but loved this design so I wanted to insure I had the option to use in the future for any other projects.

    Step Three:  Choose photos from your computer or scan in old photos from family members.  In a photo editing program like Picasa, print the photos using the wallet size option onto glossy photo paper.  If you don't have a printer to do this, Staples can help you out too.

    Step Four:  Using the eggs as a template trace around your photos as desired.

    Step Five:   Glue onto the eggs.  HINT:  If you still need to trim some of the photo, glue into place then turn over.  It is much easier to see what you need to trim from the back.

    Step Six:   Place and glue as desired.  I ended up, in the final project, pretty much filling up the tree, but this example I used less so it is easier to see.  

   Step Seven:  I found a beautiful quote on Google about Family and Trees.  Save as a jpeg and then using Publisher or Picasa, change the color or layout as you wish.  Adhere to the board.

   Step Eight:  I had some fun rhinestone stickers left from another project.  I added these on the top of each egg and then up the trunk and around to add some sparkle and dimension.

     That's it! 

    This idea can be used in many different projects....I think my main goal is to help you look at products or things you have around and come up with different ways to use it.  This was a big hit with Grandma and now I have several others to make for other friends and events.  This is great for birthdays, baby showers, anniversaries, weddings, etc.