Creating dimensional berry branch tutorial

Good Morning,

What weird weather we are having!   Autumn did not last long.  We have already had some snow and now days of cold rain, frost and fog.   Good time to stay indoors and work on a few more Christmas cards.  

Today, I decided to experiment and see if I could create dimensional berry branches.  If you need directions on creating berries with the little Styrofoam balls, you can go to my blog on this  link.

Susan has several different berry branch dies.  I used one of them and die cut the berry branch using watercolor paper. Die cut two identical branches.  This is a little heavier weight than Susan's Specialty Cardstock that I use for creating her flowers. Color the branches either brown or green. 

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In order to create the branches so they could be dimensional in the arrangement, I cut the berry branch apart into small clusters and glued them to a piece of thin floral wire.  When cutting apart, place two identical branches together because you will glue one piece on top of the wire and one identical piece on the bottom.  This gives the berry branch stability.  The wire is thin so it fits along the center of the branch and the two glued pieces hold it inside the branch. 

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 Now you can glue the berries on to the berry branch on to each berry space on the branch.  I let them dry a little to set, then glue a few more on top in between the berries to create dimension.  Once they are dry, use a black fine tip pen to push down on top of each berry for realism.  When you are ready too insert the berry stems into your arrangement, you can cut off some of the extra wire below the berries.  With the berries on the wired branch, you can lift the ends up so they are very dimensional in your arrangement. This was a little extra work, but I really like how they look in the arrangement.  

 For my background, I used the Spellbinders Holiday Floral Swag 3-D embossing folder.  

Create the poinsettia using Susan's Poinsettia die set It was die cut using Susan's Specialty Cardstock, colored and shaped using tools from Susan's Flower Tool Kit.  In the ecnter I added green Styrofoam balls with yellow and red Prills on top.  

Susan's new American Holly die set was used for the holly.  They were die cut using watercolor paper, once shaped, clear crystal glaze was brushed on to give them the waxy appearance.  

Susan's Hemlock & Chickadee die set was used to die cut the hemlock branches.

For the sentiment, I used a GinaK foiled greeting.  It was die cut using a circle die and attached with dimensional tape.

Hope you have fun creating your dimensional berry branches.

Thank you for stopping by today.