Thanksgiving Tree ~ DIY Friday

With Thanksgiving right around the corner I'm breaking my post tradition and bringing you a double-feature DIY Friday!  I just couldn't resist waiting and saving this project for next year.  I had so much fun making our Thanksgiving Tree from fallen leaves in my yard, and even incorporated this into a fun FHE activity perfect for the Season of Thanks.

When I saw this Fall Leaf Tree from the talented Kim over at Made in a Day it's apparent why she is a Designer.  It's absolutely gorgeous and I Pin'd it immediately.  Several days later I remembered that my little girl had a talk in church and my idea for a Thanksgiving Tree came to life.  The supplies are nearly free as long as you have a leafy tree or two.  For the tree base all you need is a piece of poster board and a glue gun.

 I happened to have a black one on hand.  If you have a white or brightly colored board Kim suggests you paint it brown so it doesn't show through.  Roll the poster board into a cone and hot glue the seam closed.  Trim away the bottom so the cone sits flat.

This step took me several tries.

I had an old wood candle base I sat my tree on just to make it a little more formal but it's really not needed.  I also dabbed a bit of hot glue around the base of the cone to make sure my clumsiness didn't destroy my tree.

   Kim separated out her leaves by size and I'm very glad I took her advice on this too.  It makes the gluing-on process quicker as you add the bigger leaves to the bottom, smaller leaves on top, just like a tree.  For my FHE Thanksgiving lesson I put several leaves of each size into a bowl and we each wrote three things we were thankful for on three leaves.

 Before the lesson I glued about half the leaves onto my tree so the kiddo's would have a good visual.  I started at the bottom and would skip spaces every now and then to leave room to add our 'Thankful Leaves' to the tree the next morning.

I really really wanted to rewrite all the leaves so that it would look more consistent but I knew the kiddo's would love to see their own Thankful Leaves on the tree.  I also really really wanted to use just black pens but my little girl who gave her church talk

liked usin fall colors so we wrote in red, orange, green and black pens.

I'm so thankful I left good enough alone, it turned out just beautiful.

For the top of our Thanksgiving Tree I simply popped a few leaves into the small opening in the cone or you can continue to glue the leaves tightly to the top just as Kim did.  Here is one of my favorite leaves that my sweet 5 year old did.

During our FHE lesson I read all the Thankful Leaves and the kiddo's had fun raising their hands laying claim to their leaf.  My SuperHubbie melted my heart when one of his leaves said "Good Kids."  Yes baby, we do have good kids!

Our oldest 11 year old (who swears he has peach fuzz on his upper lip) even wrote "Little Siblings" on one of his three leaves.  The other two:  Libraries and Rocks.  

I have our Thanksgiving Tree on my island counter with a wooden 'Family' sign sitting in front.  It is center stage in my home right now and I will be sad to see it go.

This could also be a fun activity to do on Thanksgiving with your entire family.  You could have a pretty bowl filled with leaves and have your guests write what they are thankful for on a leaf when they come over.  While you wait for the turkey to be done you can finish gluing the leaves on the tree and have it ready to show off on your tablescape!

For my little girls talk I found this great printable of a tree in which you add paper leaves to it with what you are thankful for written on them.  We did this but with real leaves and she spoke about them during her primary talk.  She also read this great quote from President Hinkley as well as the 'Thanksgiving Song' from a 1979 Friend.  "There are two little words in the English language that perhaps mean more than all others...they are THANK YOU."

During FHE she helped me give this lesson by doing her talk again, so that was a bonus for me!  Plus it was a great set-up for our activity of writing out our Thankful Leaves.  I loved this free printable when I saw it and so glad I Pin'd it too.  This scripture fell right in with our lesson.

THIS plus a set of matching decor from Yellow Bliss Road

I really hope you enjoyed this project of mine, and make a Tree of your own.  We made wonderful memories and for that I am truly Thankful!