This was originally posted at another blog of mine (www.motheringtc.com) that I have deleted.   I have combined all my blogs into this one for the sake of simplicity in my already busy life.   Jen – 6/13/09.

We (well, I) decided to start a Thankfulness Tree for our family. I was going to create a poster so I could roll it up to travel but it would have made my tree too small.


I went with scrapbooking materials for longevity, but construction paper would work equally well.

one tri-fold display foam-board
6 pcs of 12×12 blue paper for the sky
2 pcs of 12×12 green/grass paper for the ground
4 pcs of 8.5×11 brown paper for the tree
6 random 12×12 papers for the “wings”
2 packs of paperboard letter stickers
a Detroit Lions logo cut-out
fall colored paper to cut out leaves and turkeys
glue sticks
double-sided tape
2.5 ft of ribbon to tie shut (optional)

I first glued down my 6 blue pages in the center. I purchased these from JoAnn’s & they must have been a little smaller than 12×12 because I was about 6 inches short from the bottom, while the pages for the wings came from the scrapbook shop and FULLY covered from top to bottom and then some. I then cut my hill out of the 2 pieces of green 12×12 paper and glued those at the bottom.

I found a tree outline online and free-hand drew it on over the 4 pages of brown paper and then cut it out and glued all the pieces at the top of my green hill. I used the cardboard letter stickers to spell “I’m Thankful For…” across the top and our family name and year married on the hill.

On the right wing, the top paper has football terms and will have the “event schedule” for the day (which usually revolves around the football game). The bottom 2/3 will have the scores for the game for years to come–this was my husbands sole (and surprising!) contribution to my endeavor.

The left wing has 3 sheets of cooking themed papers. The top will have the menu, the middle is unspoken for and the bottom will have recipes.

The fall colored paper will be cut into the shape of leaves (find a template online or from your yard:) ). Everyone we spend Thanksgiving with (whether home or at someone else’s), will have to write something they are thankful for on a leaf and put it on the tree (or in the air, as if falling, or on the ground). The children will trace their little handprints onto brown paper and I will make them into turkeys and write what they are thankful for and put them on the hill under the tree. In theory, I will date them and scrapbook them. We’ll see :).

Here are some close ups of the project:

5 Comments on Thankfulness Tree

  1. Katie @ Kitchen Stewardship
    28 September 2009 at 11:29 PM (15 years ago)

    What a treasure for posterity! I wish I had time for something like this… Thanks for joining the Make it from Scratch Carnival! 🙂 Katie

    [Reply]

  2. Amy
    22 September 2009 at 5:06 PM (15 years ago)

    Yours is sooo much nicer than what I did last year! Very nice!
    ~amy @ Raising Arrows

    [Reply]

  3. SnoWhite
    22 September 2009 at 2:28 PM (15 years ago)

    what a great idea!! I’ve bookmarked that one for the future!!

    [Reply]

  4. homegrownstrawberries
    22 September 2009 at 8:57 AM (15 years ago)

    What a great Idea. I did something similar as a child that I was thinking about incorporating now that my daughter at least is old enough to get it. We write what we are thankful for on paper strips and make a paper chain with it to decorate the Christmas tree. have a great fall.

    [Reply]

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