The Thankful Tree

I wanted to share a fun tutorial with you.  This is a new idea I saw at a local craft store here in Utah and wanted to make one for my family.  I would love to hear your ideas of how you would use this with grandchildren/children in your family.  Here is the tutorial:

Step 1:  Gather supplies.  I purchased the kit from the craft store which included the wood, the hearts, the vinyl letter and the brown wired ribbon.

Step 2:  I sanded the edges with a fine sand paper and then dusted off with microfiber cloth to get remaining residue of sanded wood.  I gathered my supplies which included; spray adhesive, candy bar brown acrylic tole paint, black cherry acrylic tole paint, silver glitter spray, clear acrylic matte finish spray, brushes (hammer, nails, pencil and scissors not shown).

Step 3:  I pained the branches on both sides with the candy bar brown paint. I  painted the two hearts with the black cherry. After drying completely, I sprayed the hearts lightly with the silver glitter spray.

After all the wood pieces had dried thoroughly, I sprayed then with the matte finishing spray to both sides and allowed them to dry for several hours.

Next, I traced the shape of the tree onto the scrapbook paper I had chosen to represent the foliage of the tree. I traced on the opposite side of the paper. (This happens to be scrapbook paper which has designs on both sides.  After tracing, I cut the paper carefully with my favorite sharp scrapbooking scissors.

Step 4:  Before applying scrapbook paper to the fullness of the tree, attach the wood part of the tree to the branches with small finishing nails.  This wood kit already had the nail holes made which make it easy to see that it needed to be attached before the scrapbook paper was glued on.  By doing this, the scrapbook paper will cover up the finishing nails on the front side of the tree.

                  

Step 5: Attach the scrapbook paper to the tree using the spray adhesive.  You can either spray the wood itself, the scrapbook paper or both.  This spray adhesive sticks quickly so make sure you are very careful at positioning it to match the wood and that you lay it down carefully.  It will grab the wood and be very hard to reposition.

Step 6:  Take your viny letter and flip over to the back side (words will be backwards). Take a credit card and rub the edge of the card along the vinyl letter so that the letter will stick to the sticky side of the vinyl lettering paper.

Step 7:  Peel back the backing of the viny lettering very slowly and at an angle to avoid lettering from sticking to the back of the paper.  You want your lettering to stick together onto the front of the vinyl paper.

Step 8:  Position the vinyl lettering onto the front of the free where you feel you it would look best and still allow for room to position your "gratitude leaves".  Use the credit card to attach the viny lettering to your tree.  Rub each letter with your finger tips to make sure that the lettering is sticking to your scrapbook paper.

Step 9:  Pull the paper from the vinyl lettering again slowly and at an angle to ensure that the lettering is sticking to your tree and scrapbook paper.

Step 10:  Tie the bow at the base of the tree.

Step 11: Glue on heart at the top of the tree in a position that you feel looks best and allows for your "gratitude leaves". Trace leaves of various colors of scrapbook/construction paper for the "gratitude leaves".  I gave the a little bend and attached with double sided tape to give a 3-D effect.

Step 12: Each day your family can write on a leaf what they are thankful for. I am also attaching a picture of the wood the way the craft store made their display.  I changed mine to fit the fall colors.  I also attached the branches to the back of the tree to allow for more space to attach the leaves.  If I were to do it over, I would probably do the branches in the front like the display.  This would allow for more of a 3-D effect with the branches.

What are your ideas for utilizing this darling wood project with  your family? Please share your ideas with us!