Let the countdown begin, Christmas is just 27 day aways! A Christmas tree is a staple of holiday decor and we’re loving this alternative option created by Rae Ann Kelly, from raeannkelly.com. Check out how she created this festive but simple tree and enter to win one for yourself!
Thanksgiving is just a day away so naturally (if you are like me) decorating for Christmas is on the brain and I’m excited to share with you a fun Christmas tree decal (and giveaway) and some details about my design process!
I’ll jump right in and then share a little about my family and Christmas decorating habits below.
In our home there always seems to be a delicate balance between making it feel festive as opposed to cluttered. Over the years I’ve learned that spreading the decorative wealth throughout our home helps quite a bit and gives each room the perfect touch of holiday cheer. One thing I’ve always wanted to do is put a Christmas tree in each of the kids’ rooms, but when it comes to the room that our middles (Espen & Tilly) share, there is just not enough space. So needless to say, when our decal came in the mail last week I knew just where to put it.
As far as my personal design and style preferences go, I like to keep things simple and clean with fun whimsical touches and color combinations. When I sat down to design this tree decal, I knew I wanted to make something that I would like just as much as the kids. So, I chose to work with two classics: blackboard and plaid. I mean, I can hardly resist those two elements alone, so I knew they would be great together.
I used this blackboard background that I wanted to share (click here to download) and for the plaid patterns I used free plaid Photoshop brush that I found here. I could have spent all day playing around and perfecting each plaid, but I knew they would only be filling small “ornaments” so I didn’t spend too my time on them before saving each as a jpg.
Now that I was finished with my patterns, it was time to make the tree, ornaments, candy canes and stars. I create a lot of my finished work in Adobe Illustrator, but most, if not all of what I did to make the decal can be done in any basic design/photo program. For the tree I simply drew (with a pen tool) triangles and stacked them on top of each other. The candy canes and stars were also made with a pen and circles with the shape tool.
Once everything was made, I imported the blackboard and plaid files, used a clipping mask to fill each shape with a pattern and viola!!!… a decal was born! Of course there are always little things that go wrong or don’t fit right which is ok. I ended up disliking some of the plaids I had made, but no one would ever know that it wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when they saw the finished product.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments.
I would also LOVE to know where in your home you would put the tree decal… and do hope that you win the giveaway!
Enter by Tuesday, December 3rd 2013 for a chance to win! We will announce the winner on the blog on December 4th. Congratulations to Susan Allen, winner of our gift wrap giveaway!
I would put the decal in my living room window as I live in an apartment
Living room wall! Or maybe one at my office… or one on the refrigerator… or out by our pool! I guess I would need to have a lot of them! I would love to send them to the newly weds and young adults in my life. Great gift easy for their apartments. haha guess I need about 20 of them.
This would be great! We will not have a real tree this year, because of a one year old who just started to walk. So this would be a nice replacement.
Thanks so much for sharing.
Oh My! You have made such a beautiful tree.
I am inspired to make one too.
So very cute! I would give it to my niece for her bedroom 🙂
I’d love to win. Probably on sewing room door
I would put the christmas tree decal on my kitchen pantry door.
I would put it in my living/dining room. It’s the perfect tree for someone with over-inquisitive cats 😉
That’s quite awesome and good gift for Christmas!!