My version of a "Thankful Tree"

I know what you must be thinking, "What? Three posts in one day? Slow down there Stacy!" I have really enjoyed all my guest bloggers posting here the last week because it has given me time to work on my etsy store, but I have missed sharing my projects with you!

The idea of a thankful tree is not new and I have seen so many of them around. So I almost didn't share mine with you. But it is a little different so I will. The main difference is how it is used. I know this will sound incredibly silly, but it has always bugged me that you add leaves everyday instead of taking them off. It is Fall after all. The leaves fall off the tree ( ok, so I might be a little OCD or something. . . ) So at our house we make all our leaves together and write what we are thankful for on them. We put them all on the tree. Every person has their own color. Mine was red! Then at night when we are doing the whole scripture reading, prayer, bedtime thing, we each pick one of ours off and we talk about those things. You could do this at dinner time or when ever it is easiest for your schedule. Then the leaves are "falling" off the tree gradually just like in nature. Okay, here is how I made mine:

I used some plaster of paris that I had hanging around,

a bucket, (and yes, that is a 90% off sticker you see) and a little tree that died in our yard. You could also use a flower pot. Just make sure to cover the hole with tape so the plaster doesn't come out the bottom.

I picked out some fall paper for the leaves too.

I mixed up the plaster and stuck my tree in it. I let it sit for most of the day to make sure it was hard.

I cut one leaf out and then used it as a pattern. I traced 24 leaves per piece of paper. Then I got craft wire and cut about 2 inch pieces.

Instead of tape, I used my glue gun because I thought it would be more secure.( plus I really like my glue gun!) I want to re-use the leaves for next year.

Because I added the wire to the leaves instead of using say, string, I was able to wrap the wire around the branches and bend them where ever I wanted. I had control over where they faced and everything (I like having control!)
And there you have it! My Thankful Tree!!!

We left some of them blank so we can add things next year. I figure most things we wrote this year we will still be thankful for next year too, like our home, food, family. . etc. It didn't take a ton of time, but I would like to get at least a couple years out of it!

Oh, and I forgot to add something to the bucket to hide the plaster. I will probably throw some moss in there or something. Maybe. If I get around to it :)