Alright, let’s be honest – I don’t show up for everything on time. I’m not sure where it started, or when, but I KNOW I didn’t get it from my father. I drove him absolutely nuts when I was a kid because I would be “ready to go” and then have to run upstairs about 5 more times because I kept forgetting something which would make us me late. Even now, I don’t like to be the first one to something. I generally roll into social events about 10 – 15 minutes late (now it’s my husband I am driving nuts, not my father). I just can’t seem to shake the habit – but I’ll keep trying for J’s sanity! If only I wouldn’t forget my rings… then my phone… then my jacket…
Anyway, lets get to the point. Kim is throwing these awesome DIY blog parties every Monday for the next few weeks and the first one was this past Monday. I had every intention to be at Monday’s party on Monday. I EVEN set my google calendar to remind me on FRIDAY to do my post for Monday. Well, the weekend got the best of me (seems I forgot I had so much going on) and then Monday came, and I created my project. It’s been done since then. Well, almost done. But as done as it will be until I get home from Nebraska. Sorry I’m SOOOO late.
I still figure my idea is worth sharing, and hopefully you’ll agree. Initially this DIY was difficult for me, as my creative juices just weren’t generating anything worth sharing (or creating for that matter). Then, after surfing the web, I had an idea. I made a Thankful tree. Other girls at the party made some Thankful trees here and here. They are cute!
I started out by looking up family tree templates online to get an idea of what shape of tree I wanted. Once I felt inspired by a shape I liked, I grabbed a piece of gray scrapbook paper, drew my tree trunk, and cut it out. Gray might not scream uber-fall to some, but I love gray and it goes well with my other décor.
side note: Please excuse the picture quality… Husband suprised me with a camera for our trip to Nebraska so I promise to limit the iPhone photos going forward! 
I then took more scrapbook paper that is textured (you can’t tell from the photos) in some of the fall colors that would go well with other things in my kitchen since that is where it will be displayed until one day when I have a dining room. I cut out small-ish leaves (about 1.5 inches long) to go with the trunk. Fold the paper in half to cut the leaves which will also add more dimension to the overall look.
After cutting the leaves, I picked one to write on for this year. I used black, but in the future I think I will use the same color, different tone, of marker so that it is more subtle and not quite so stark. I would also recommend maybe making your tree trunk a little larger so the leaves won’t be so small – but hey, we’re only planning to write things like “our house”, “our marriage”, and “Toby” so small will work for us.
I then placed the leaves randomly around the trunk/branches.
I decided the trunk was large enough to hold a quote – so I thought I’d use “Give thanks with a greatful heart”. So I did. Then I realized that I’m an idiot and greatful is actually spelled grateful so I had to scrap the gray tree (since it was my last piece of gray paper and permanent marker and bled thru to the other side of the trunk) and go for more traditional brown tree.
I also didn’t love how my handwriting turned out on the gray tree, so I haven’t attempted to rewrite on the brown trunk. Eventually I will… maybe with a gold pen, or silver to add some shimmer. Oh, maybe I’ll use silver or gold to write on the leaves… Clearly this is still a work in progress.
I definitely wanted this project to be something personal and something that could be built on year after year. I thought about making place cards and giving everyone a leaf to write on and add to the tree but then I rethought that idea (since we probably won’t actually be hosting Thanksgiving any time soon) and decided that each year hubs and I can add one (or 2 or 50) new leaves to the tree of things we are especially grateful for that year so each year the tree will expand. Eventually the leaves will overlap and make the tree more full, which will make it fun to look back at when it was this bear beginning of a tree (not that it’s a bad thing, you’ve got to start somewhere!).
Overall I like how this turned out. Currently it is taped inside of a gray shadow box, but I think I am going to move it over to a frame since I’ve got a great idea up my sleeve for my gray shadow box which I’ll share before Christmas because it’s a cute and relatively inexpensive gift.
Thanks Kim for hosting and everyone else who did show up Monday! I LOVED all the ideas. Especially these and this and Kim’s Owl Stamp. I think I’ll try out the lanterns for some festive Christmas décor (which will start to break out next week)!
