Oh My. Why Did I Ever Start This Tea Party Idea?

I have reached the stage of leafing the tree structures and have just realised that this stage is going to take me a lot longer than I anticipated.  Firstly there is the choice of paper and I seem to have chosen badly. My local resources are not brilliant so I have ordered sheets of rice paper from Ebay but they are yet to arrive. I have used mulberry papers from my stash but some of them are much too flimsy and the punches hate them. I bought a water colour pad from Hobbycraft that I thought would be thin enough but once painted this paper is proved heavy. 

Then I bought some quilling sheets from JJQuilling. These seem to be working and they come in a huge range of colours. I bought a swatch so I can make sure what colours are available for future reference. The sheet is the equivalent of four A4 sheets which work out at 20p each so really good value.

Making mistakes is not only a waste of money but such a time waster too. I painted, dry washed and added medium to a whole load of sheets that have now proved un-useable for the leaves although I may be able to use for hand cut leaves on the bushes and plants at a later date. 

I am also having second thoughts about using the gloss medium on one side of each sheet. It has made the leaves very shiny which is what I thought I wanted. I am worried about the room box being too dark and I thought that the shiny leaves would reflect light better. Now I am not so sure.......

 Anyway.......I began with one of the wire bushes and started adding the leaves in clusters, this is a very slow process.

 I have used my fine tipped glue pot from Templewood they stock a very good range of kits and accessories. I have also picked up this very handy tip in my research. You can dab glue onto the thumb of one hand and use this to dip each leaf in with your tweezers as you add single leaves.

These are the ivy leaves I am adding to one of the tree trunks.

 These are maple leaves that I have scattered on one of the thin trees. These are meant to look slightly older and less fully leaved. 

 The finished ivy trail has worked well. I tried to add a stem to the trunk but just couldn't get it to stick so I added them in pairs without a stem and you can't notice the lack at all.

 I have used punches for the leaves and here you can see where I have dry brushed to try and add some colour variation.

 I decided to shape the leaves as well. This is time consuming but it does make the leaves look more natural. You need to do this on a soft pad like a mouse mat so that the leaves cup and hold their shape. There are lots of shaping tools available my came from Templewood Miniatures but I think Poundland sell a set in their nail art section.

 Again I have added in clumps as well as an ivy growing from the ground. This tree is going in the back corner so I wanted it to be quite bright but I am not sure if this shade is a bit too vivid so they might be binned once I finish off the other trees. I am so indecisive about colour.

 This is one of the larger wire trees and I have added quite a few leaves to this one but it still looks a bit sparse in the photograph. I will wait for the glue to dry and then decide to add more.

 Last but not least another of the tall skinny trees.

So five down quite a few left to go!! I am starting to think about how I going to affix these structures into the flowers beds so I am thinking air drying clay mixed with PVA might be the answer I am a long way off that problem yet!