Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Katrina’s Thankful Tree

There are lots of ideas out there on Thankful Trees. This is my take on it. There are two criteria for my family for activities like this that have a life lesson. One is that it has to be quick because my boys just won’t sit for something that is long and drawn out. Two, it has to be something that is easy to fit into our daily routine and not take a lot of time or energy to do. We have a hard enough time getting our Autistic son to sit down to do homework or anything that he perceives as “work.” I think (time will tell) that I have come up with something that will work for us.

Thankful tree full of leaves

What I used to make my thankful tree:

12x12 inch scrapbook paper for the background.

12x12 inch dark brown scrapbook paper for the tree

Poster board

Rub on letters

Silk leaves I purchased from the 99 cent only store

Mod Podge

Loctite Fun Tak Mounting Putty (to hold the leaves in place)

Sharpie pen to write on the leaves

12x12 picture frame that normally holds a collage of pictures my son took. (The collage and glass are behind my thankful tree)

Bare Thankful Tree

I used a white colored pencil to sketch my tree on the back of the brown paper. When I was happy with my sketch, I cut it out.

I used mod Podge to glue the background paper to the poster board to help keep the paper from curling.

I then used Mod Podge to glue the tree onto the background paper. I used criss cross brush strokes so that it has a “painted” look when it’s dry. Kind of like when you look at an oil painting on canvas.

After the Mod Podge dried I placed my rub on letters on to the background paper. I used more Mod Podge to make sure the letters are protected.

I used mounting putty (the kind you use for posters that won’t mark the wall) to stick the leaves on my tree.

How we will use it:

Each day in November we will each take a leaf off the top of the tree and write what we are thankful for using only 1 or 2 words. We will then stick the leaves on the ground under the tree. By removing the leaves off the tree we are experiencing the passage of fall. By the time December 1st comes around all our leaves will have “fallen” off our tree and filled the “ground” with all that we are thankful for. Winter will be here. Since this hangs on the wall near our dinner table we will do this when we sit down for dinner.

We can reuse the background next year and simply add new silk leaves or cut some out of paper.

One idea of what to do with the leaves we use this year could be to scrapbook them on a two page layout with 4 smaller trees, one for each person in the family. Each tree would be labeled with our names and our Thankful leaves will go onto our trees. This way we can look back years from now and see what we were thankful for.

Katrina

I am thankful to my Sisters-in-law for inviting me to join them in making this blog. It has been so much fun. I am also thankful to all our friends who stop by every day to check out the things we have made and leave us a little note.

15 comments:

Beansieleigh said...

This is a really cute idea!! I have been wanting to come up with something for a bulletin board, and I like this! Thanks! ~tina

Teresa said...

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this idea and plan to do it at our house this fall. I love it so much, in fact, that I blogged about it over at my blog, It's A Good Day. Here's the link. http://itisagoodday.blogspot.com/2009/10/thankful-tree.html

Thanks for the great idea!
Teresa

Laurel @ Ducks in a Row said...

Your tree is darling. I love how you are planning on having the leaves fall!

Anonymous said...

lovely idea :)

CitricSugar said...

Katrina, this is gorgeous! I love the tree in its leave-less state as well. Simply wonderful!

Angie said...

Am totally stealing this idea- thanks!

LollyChops said...

This is totally brilliant!!! I really love it!

The Greevers Posse said...

This is such a cute idea!
I not only plan on making this little "sweetheart"...but I blogged about it too!
Come on over & check it out when you get the chance @
www.greeversposse.weebly.com
Thanks again for the terrific idea!
~DeAyn

Prince Family said...

Thanks for letting us link to your site!!! Your site is wonderful and we hope to send LOTS of visitors your way! Also, Thanks for linking to ours site!!!
Alison
www.howdoesshe.com

Kim @ NewlyWoodwards said...

This is so cool. I just found you through the daily DIY

Christianne @ Little Page Turners said...

Beautiful! Gearing up to do our own thankful tree next week... I love the idea of using a frame! Thanks for sharing!

Kristin said...

I ♥ this! I think we'll do it as well.

Katrina, I had troubles with my son doing his homework as well. We had "The Great Homework Battle" for a long while.

I have my first giveaway on my blog. It's a crock pot. Please stop by and enter if you'd like.

http://thedaysofmylife-kristin.blogspot.com/2009/11/giveaway.html

Alison @ Oopsey Daisy said...

I love your thankful tree the best!! Simple, effective, do-able. I am going to do this Monday night for Family Night with our family. Thanks!

Unknown said...

I'm thankful for wonderfully crafty people like you! xo

Bethany @ The Paper Pony said...

What a beautifully simple way to remember to give thanks AND celebrate the changing of the seasons! I will definitely steal this idea... you were so inspired to create this wonderful craft.