A Thanksgiving Tree

I love Thanksgiving for so many reasons, and one of them is that it’s such a great opportunity for me to help teach my children about gratitude.  We try to work on it all year long, but I love having a month to focus on giving thanks and all the blessings we’ve been given. One thing that we’ve always done through the month of November is share the things that we’re grateful for, and this year we’re doing that with our Thanksgiving tree!

It’s a wonderfully easy concept–each day the kids choose a leaf, talk about something that they’re grateful for, then stick it on the tree.  I just love it as the days progress, and our little tree is filled up with leaves! Plus, it’s really cute.  ☺ It can go up on a mantel, on a table in an entry, or up on a wall–so you can see it everyday.

This was a really simple project–doesn’t take long, and is super cheap!  LOVE that!

I used furring strips because they’re really inexpensive, and a great width for this tree.  You’ll need to sand the wood well–furring strips tend to be pretty rough.  You can use different wood if you’d rather–and the sizes can also vary if you need them to!

{supplies}

-1 x 3 furring strip, 48 inches tall

-1 x 4 , cut into 5 pieces: 6 inches, 12 inches, 18 inches, 24 inches, and 30 inches

-nails & hammer or nail gun or staple gun

-stain ( I used Minwax Dark Walnut)

-vinyl

-paper leaves

{directions}

1.  Cut your wood to the sizes listed above.  Stain each piece of wood and let dry completely.

2.  I used a staple gun to attach the five  pieces to the main piece of wood (the 1×4).  I left a 5 inch space in between each piece.

3. I cut “give thanks” out of white vinyl, and attached it to the bottom wood piece.

3.  I used my Silhouette to cut out different leaf shapes out of scrapbook paper–a lot of them. ☺

You can use double stick tape to adhere the leaves to the wood, or painters tape, if you want to re-use them.  You  can write on them…or not…whatever you want to do.

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