I love having family traditions for all the major holidays. Many years ago I decided we needed a Thankful Tree for the month of November so we could focus on being thankful and grateful during the entire month, not just on Thanksgiving Day. Really thinking about the blessings in your life is a surefire way to feel happier and more content. A quote by Robert Vincent Peale sums it up best: “The more you practice the art of thankfulness, the more you have to be thankful for.”
Every night in November, we gather as a family and write 1-3 things we are thankful for on a cardstock leaf. Then we read them to each other and use a removeable piece of mounting putty to attach the cardstock leaf to our “tree”.
Our tree has taken many forms including drawn poster board trees and a large artificial tree. This year I have what I believe is the perfect setup for our Thankful Tree. It’s pretty, classy, and doesn’t take up too much space. And since the mounting putty is removeable, at the end of the month I can just take off the cardstock leaves and the “tree” will be ready to use again next year!
Watch the video tutorial:
Supplies:
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Opaque vase or container big enough to hold the branches
Cricut or Silhouette
Optional:
5x7 frame for sign
Crocheted jar cover free pattern - I used Hobby Lobby’s I Love This Yarn in Ivory Tweed.
Start Making a Thankful Tree:
Cut your floral foam however you need to so you can jam it into your vase or container and glue it in place. You want it to fit into the opening, but not slide all the way through. I put my foam in and then applied hot glue in the places the foam touched the container.
Use more hot glue and some floral pins to cover the floral foam with forest moss to make it look pretty. I only needed three pins to secure the moss.
Stick the ends of the Ficus branches into the floral foam so they are spaced out and look nice. You can also bend the branches into place to cover gaps.
Make Leaves for a Thankful Tree:
I have a Cricut, so I use Cricut Design Space to cut the leaves. Upload the free png into Design Space. If you have any trouble with this step, here is a tutorial that will help you out.
Drop the png into a new project and click the lock button above the measurements so you can size the whole group of leaves. You want them to be 8 inches wide and 10 1/2 inches in height.
Next, cut them out. The png will cut 18 leaves per sheet of 8 ½ x 11-inch cardstock. Keep in mind you need enough leaves so everyone who will be participating has one for each day leading up to Thanksgiving. I like to cut out leaves in about four colors, so we get the full “fall” effect.
Your Thankful Tree is ready to be used! I like to put a sign in front of the tree I designed that says “I am Thankful for….”, and a jar with pens nearby so it’s easy to fill out our leaves each night.
Every day, each member of the family writes down something they are thankful for, applies a blog of mounting putty to the back, and presses it onto a Ficus leaf. This tradition really helps us as a family remember and think about all the blessings we have, and I hope it helps you and yours do the same.
Get the free png for leaves here:
Happy crafting!
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