Create a wall thankful tree this season as a way to show gratitude through creativity.
Make a Thankful Tree for the Wall
I recently saw an image on the web featuring the idea of a wall thankful tree. Instantly I knew I had to make one and I had the perfect spot.
Thanksgiving Wall Decor
We are in the midst of some remodeling at our house. We’ve converted the formal living to a formal dining and the formal dining we have made into a study.
The study now gives us this great inset wall which happens to be the first thing your eye is drawn to when you walk in the front door. So what better place for our gratitude thankful tree.
Gratitude Project
Why a thankful tree? This is our family’s gratitude project. We have 4 kids that need to learn how to be thankful. I once read that the happiest people are those that are thankful.
The tree isn’t just for the kids, it’s for me and my husband as well. Each day, we will each take a leave – write what we are thankful for on a leaf and write our name on the back. We’ll read them each off on Thanksgiving. Teaching gratitude is so important to me. I feel like gratitude is a life skill everyone needs to have in their knowledge backpack!
How to Make a Thankful Tree
The tree we made it kind of big. It’s around 8 feet tall and 10 feet wide. You can make your’s whatever size you’d like. This project is very forgivable.
The tree took maybe an hour to make and the best thing is that it only cost around $5 to make. I really love the meaning of it and the way it feels our space.
I bought everything at Dollar Tree
Supplies
Here are the supplies you will need to make your wall thankful tree:
- 2-3 Rolls of Kraft Brown Kraft Paper (I bought 3, used exactly 2)
- Multi-Color Foam Sheets
- Poster Tack
- Thumb tacks
- Pencil
- Printer
- Scissors
Instructions
I mentioned that this project is forgiving right? Here’s how I made my tree:
Tip: Look at this picture of a tree. I didn’t at first and my first attempt ended up wonky and non-tree like.
Making the Tree Trunk
I started with the trunk. I cut a strip of kraft paper the height I wanted the trunk. Then, I slightly wet the paper by wetting my hands and crinkling the paper lightly. This gives the paper a neat effect.
I had my daughter help. She held and I used thumb tacks to secure the trunk to the wall.
Wet Kraft Paper
This is what the wet kraft paper looked liked. You can see it’s not totally saturated, but definitely wet. The crumbling gives it a cool effect.
Creating Tree Branches for the Wall
Next to create the branches. We cut long strips of kraft paper, the length we wanted the branches to be. Then cut them in half, length wise. This created 2 branches.
Again, we wet the paper lightly and then played around finding ways to best make a branch. Our branches ended up working best twisting to make smaller at the ends. This took some playing around with – very forgiving. Again we just tacked the branches up with thumb tacks.
The trunk originally started much taller, but then looking at the tree inspiration picture, I realized it needed to be shorter and branches coming out of it – up and all around. Again, trial and error but love the final outcome!
Printable Leaf Template
The next step requires a printer. You will want to print out the following leaf templates.
Cut them out and then use them to trace on the foam. I stacked 4-5 pieces of foam together and cut. Again, leaves are forgiving.
If those don’t suit your fancy, here are some more leaf templates.
Gratitude Leaves
We scattered a few leaves here and there but are leaving the leaves for the actual tree to be the ones we write on. Each day we plan to write on a leaf what we are thankful for. Here is Izaiah’s gratitude leaf:
I wrote his name on the back. On Thanksgiving, we will go through each leaf and with the name on the back it will be an easy reminder of who said what. With 4 kids, this mom gets confused easily.
Our Tree of Thanks
And this is it, our final tree of thanks and your view from walking in our front door. I absolutely love how it turned out. It’s not only great for holiday decoration, it is a simpler reminder to be thankful for all we have. We are blessed, that I know.
Yep, this is the view from our front door. Halloween Minecraft costume on the floor (CREEPER!). The bat still hanging in the archway. And you don’t even want to see the piles of laundry in the living room. But you know what? It’s all okay.
Check out our free Thankful Printable that I have hung next to our tree!
If you end up making this, please snap a photo! I would love to see your thankful tree!
