'We Wish You a Merry Christmas' Art

Many of my ideas come from attempts to salvage a craft that didn't work. Such was the case with this:

I had an idea to use Scrabble tiles to spell out 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas' in the shape of a tree. One problem: those words don't form the shape of a tree. I tried a couple of variations, but ultimately it wouldn't work with the square tiles. "If only I could stretch the letters so they were taller and narrower," I thought. And then I realized that I couldn't stretch Scrabble tiles, but I could draw letters that are tall and thin. 

Step 1 was making a template. I folded a piece of paper in half, then did an accordion fold.

I unfolded the paper and used the fold lines to draw a tree shape and write my words to fit the space. I used pencil so I could erase as needed. When I was happy with the design, I traced the letters with a Sharpie.

I put a clean, unfolded piece of paper on top of my template, used a paper clip to hold them together, then put them on my light box (affiliate link) and traced with a green pen. 

 Then I cut that paper into a triangle.

I used pens to decorate letters. I added holly in the gap between YOU and A, then added little dots of color everywhere. 

Finally, I colored over the whole thing with a light green color pencil. Then I added a yellow star and a brown tree trunk. I love how it turned out.

You can make a large tree and display it on a wall, or make a small tree and use it as a card. Either way, it's really festive.