Symbol-by-Symbol Instructions

Just because my sweet friend-in-the-computer LeighAnn asked...well, that and I thought that other people might be mildly curious and/or too shy to ask, I decided to do a quick-quick-quickie little typing tutorial on how I made each symbol for our Jesse Tree. (I briefly considered getting out at least the crafting tools/equipment/materials and taking a new pic of them, and then realized that was ridiculous.)

So, if you need to catch up on the why of a Jesse Tree Advent....calendar? banner? We just call it our Jesse Tree. Anyway, here's a permalink to my previous post about it.

So to get started on your leaf symbols exactly the way that I did them, you'll need

• lots of felt (small pieces, even scraps will do in most cases) in lots of colors, including a white sparkly felt
• puff paint in glitter-gold, glitter-silver, glitter-green, glitter-blue, black and brown
• cotton balls
• ribbon scraps and wonder-under (for Joseph's coat of many colors)
• small sequins for embellishments
• burlap
• microfine glitter in white/silver/gold (any of these will do) and black
• silk rose bud
• wheat stalks and spray acrylic
• red yarn
• small piece of card stock (I cut up one of my personal stationery cards)

So, I realize this is a long list, but other than the silk rose and the wheat, I already had allllll this stuff in my sewing and crafting stuff. For each photo, you'll see 6 to 7 symbols; below the photos I list the items in order from top to bottom, then left to right. The specific instructions for each symbol are beside the number description. All of these symbols were glued to the felt leaves using either Tacky Glue or Fabri-Tac, layering the elements of each leaf as necessary to achieve the desired final outcome. For almost all of these, I just eye-balled my design as I was cutting it out with embroidery scissors. If you're not artistically inclined, you could always sketch them on paper and them cut out your felt like a pattern, but it will more than double your completion time. If you get stuck on the shape of something, or what something ought to/could look like, just google it! :)

Now let's do this thing!! ;)

(1) Stump, for Jesse Tree: cut stump out of felt, embellish with black paint to make "bark," green for a leafy twig, and outline with gold

(2) Earth, for Creation: cut blue circle, embellish with green paint for continents, outline with blue

(3) Apple, for Adam & Eve and fall: cut red apple with bite missing out of felt, paint stem and leaf; alternately, you could use a leaf from the stem of your silk rose and just glue it underneath the apple on the felt leaf

(4) Ark with rainbow, for Noah and the flood: cut ark shape out of brown felt (refer to Answers in Genesis for a more realistic Ark shape) and paint lines with gold to make it look like 3D; use a scrap of rainbow-print ribbon, folding/mitering it in 4 to 5 points to make the rainbow arc over the Ark. Top ends of your rainbow with cotton ball clouds. Alternately, use puff paint to make a striped rainbow; paint on leaf before attaching Ark.

(5) Tent and camel, for Abraham and Sarah: cut tent shape out of burlap (or brown or tan felt) and embellish with gold paint. Add small sequin stars above, or use puff paint in silver to dot stars above tent (stars are integral to that day's Bible study). Cut camel shape out of tan felt, outline with gold paint, and paint a blue saddle on him.

(1) Ram, for Isaac: cut ram shape out of white felt and embellish with silver paint around his body, gold for horns, and black for nose and eyes. I used a stretched out cotton ball that I sprayed with spray-adhesive and then sprinkled with white and gold microfine glitter to cover the bottom half of his body, sort of to demonstrate how the ram was supernaturally supplied to Abraham.

(2) Ladder, for Jacob: cut ladder shape out and outline with brown paint. Embellish with stars.

(3) Coat of Colors, for Joseph: THE toughest one for me. I used ribbon scraps, pinned them to a piece of fabric from the other side of the fabric to get them aligned properly, and then applied wonder-under (which is an iron adhesive) on the other side of the ribbons. Flip over, remove your pins (if you pinned it correctly, that is). Then cut out a coat shape (I did mine in 3 pieces to achieve the perpendicular stripe appearance of the sleeves), and embellish with gold paint. There are other simpler ways to do this, like using a scrap of colorful fabric from a previous project, or even painting the whole thing.

(4) 10 Commandments, for Moses: cut out 2 tablets from cream felt, outline with gold paint. Use black paint (or a sharpie) to write Roman numerals 1-10 on them.

(5) Scarlet cord, for Rahab: cut a short length of red yarn and put a square knot a little bit from each end. Swirl or loop decoratively to glue down to leaf.

(6) Wheat, for Ruth: purchase some dried wheat from the floral department of any craft store. Check carefully to make sure your wheat isn't buggy. Cut off several stalks and take them outside and lay them on newspaper. Spray the daylights out of them with spray acrylic to help seal them, so they won't get buggy, letting them dry completely between coats. I probably did a total of about 15 coats, spraying them from several different angles to get down into all the nooks and crannies.

(1) Horn of oil, for Samuel: Cut horn shape out of cream felt. Embellish with gold paint, including some drips of oil.

(2) Harp, for David: Cut U-shape of harp out of brown felt, and outline with gold paint. Use gold paint to draw harp strings.

(3) Crown, for Solomon: Cut crown out of yellow felt, and outline with gold paint. Use small sequins to embellish crown with "jewels."

(4) Rose, for prophecy: Purchase a small, lightweight silk rose and cut stem off shortly below bud using sturdy wire cutters. Glue to leaf, slightly curving felt around the back of rose bud to help the glue adhere and hold on tight. Use a spare silk leaf from the bottom of stem to cover up cut end of rose on your felt leaf.

(5) Raven, for Elijah: Cut out bird shape from black felt and beak from yellow felt. OPTIONAL: I also cut out a wing shape from black felt, sprayed it with spray adhesive and then sprinkled it with black microfine glitter. Use silver paint for his eye.

(6) Whale, for Jonah: Yes, I know now it was a fish. {smile} Cut whale (or fish) shape out of gray (or other desired color) felt, outline with paint. Embellish whale with blue paint for his spout.

(1) Scroll, for Isaiah: Cut a small rectangle of card stock and curl top and bottom ends using a toothpick as a guide. Glue curved ends in place if desired. Write the names of the Messiah on the scroll.

(2) Bible, for Jeremiah: Cut 2 small rectangles of white felt and one slightly larger rectangle from brown felt. Layer white rectangles inside the brown to make pages. Glue them down almost entirely, except for the edge. If I had this one to do over again, I would do a cross and/or "Holy Bible" on the outside with gold paint, and use black paint or a sharpie to make a double column of teeny squiggle lines on the page that is open.

(3) Lion, for Daniel: Cut a mane out of brown felt, and a circle of tan felt for the lion's face. Layer pieces together, and use brown paint to illustrate lion's face.

(4) Trowel and bricks, for Nehemiah: Cut bricks out of brown felt, and small trowel shape out of gray felt. Outline bricks and embellish trowel with a small dab of "mortar."

(5) Praying hands, for Zechariah and Elizabeth: The easiest way to do this is to cut 2 hands and arms out of flesh-colored felt and lay one on top of the other. Outline with gold paint.

(6) Angel, for angels: Cut angel's robe out of white felt, and a wing shape (or 2 wings) out of your white sparkly felt. Cut out hair shape in desired hair color, and an oval and 2 hands of flesh-colored felt for a face. Layer on the leaf: wings, face, hair and hands, then robe. Embellish and outline with paint as desired.

(1) Mary praying, for Mary: Mary is 3-dimensional. Cut an oval and 2 arms and hands of flesh-colored felt, some bangs from brown felt, a light blue mantle and a darker blue robe with longish sleeves. Layer on the leaf: face, bangs, robe, and mantle. Fold sleeves up (as of arms bent at the elbow), and trim length as needed. Glue hands together, and then fold out arms, glue arms to Mary's body, and then fold sleeves up over arms and glue down. Paint her face. You also could skip the 3D part and have her praying with flat hands clasped to her chest.

(2) Tools, for Joseph: Cut out brown hammer and a handle for the saw from brown felt, and a saw blade from gray felt. Layer and then outline with silver and gold paints.

(3) Dove, for John the Baptist: Cut out dove shape from white felt, and a small beak from black felt. Paint dove's wing feathers with silver paint and outline.

(4) Sandals and staff, for shepherds: Cut out 2 sandal shapes from cream felt, outline and paint the thong-part of sandal with gold paint. Cut out shepherd's crook from brown felt, outline with gold paint.

(5) Star, for the New Star: Cut out star-shape (whatever you prefer) from white sparkly felt, outline and embellish with silver paint.

(6) Manger, for Jesus' birth: A multi-layered symbol. Cut out flesh-colored circle for baby Jesus' face, a yellow circle for halo, and white sparkly swaddled body. Paint over yellow halo with gold paint; when dry position and glue behind head. Glue head to body. For manger, cut out any desired manger shape (I used another project as inspiration) from brown felt; cut thin fringe strips of yellow for hay. Affix baby to leaf, tuck some hay behind him and around him; glue down thoroughly. Attach manger on top to give appearance of him being in it.

(7) Chi Rho: Cut out Chi Rho from white sparkly felt and outline with silver paint.

Whew, so there you have it! :) When we store our Jesse Tree symbols and banner, I fold the banner carefully and place in the bottom of a paper-line plastic storage tub. Then I stack each leaf-symbol wrapped individually in a single layer of tissue paper (yes, takes forever, but so did making them, and I'm willing to protect them), and finally, I tuck cedar sachets into several places in the storage tub. I hope this pseudo-tutorial was helpful to anyone who would like to begin celebrating this tradition but didn't really know where to begin.