Thankful Trees, Phase 3, and Egg on my Face

I finally finished my Thankful Trees. I fuddled and fitzed with them for hours, making new pieces, fixing broken ones (yep, more on that later). Indecision may or may not be my problem, but in the end, I made two trees with different concepts rather than a mish-mash on both trees. Instead of putting them both on the mantle, my plan is to separate them in different rooms.

Here's the first one, which is monochromatic. As you might imagine it is my favorite. Shades of red. Yum.

The second tree uses a range of autumn colors. My bet is that plenty of you will prefer this tree for its variety.

By the way, I used the punched circles from the scallop ornaments to make a card I'll post later. How very thrifty of me. I made those ornaments by first punching the smaller, smooth circle, then the larger scallop circle. I glued two "flowers" onto either side of a medium circle to frame the leaf and acorn images.

Now, let's discuss the egg on my face. These pleated ornaments are gorgeous, are they not? I got the idea from a BH&G magazine.

When I first made the pleated ornaments, I used glue dots rather than the glue gun the instructions called for because I hate glue guns. Hate is a strong word, but I'd rather have my teeth cleaned, get a vaccine, and spend two hours locked in a small room full of sticky, loud toddlers than use a glue gun.

But this is what happens when you use the wrong adhesive: complete destruction.

So of course, I pulled this out of my basement storage.

And promptly gave myself burns. But the ornaments are holding together nicely now.

I guess we have to suffer for our hobby.

But at least my Thankful Trees are finished.

How is your Gratitude Challenge coming? Do share, please.