{Family Project} Make your own Thankful Tree

Hello again!  I'm back today folks with a cute and simple family project!  I hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween!  We had a ton of trick-or-treaters at our house that night and it was so fun to hand out candy and see all the creative costumes.  And now that Halloween is over, it is on to the next holiday season...THANKSGIVING!  I absolutely love Thanksgiving, more specifically for the turkey dinner at my parents' house, but also for the time to reflect on giving thanks for all that we have.  I was inspired by many people on Facebook who have recently begun posting reasons why they are thankful each day for the month of November.  While I love social media and appreciate people sharing their reasons on Facebook, I thought it would be fun to do a family project and create a thankful tree together with my husband. 

So on my weekend trip to Hobby Lobby, I picked up some skinny tree branches that were 50% off ($3.99) to help create our tree.  I used a simple, silver can that I had for a "vase" for my branches. 

To start, I removed the plastic wrap from my branches and started to arrange them in the can.  I probably should have bought two packages of branches to make it a bit more fuller but I still think it turned out fine. 

 Once my branches were arranged how I wanted them, I gathered up some scrapbook scraps that I had lying around that I thought were "Thanksgiving-ish" colors.  My plan was to use my circle punch to punch out some circles to use as the "leaves" for our tree.

I punched out three or four circles of each patterned paper because the idea is to add a "leaf" each day of November with something that you are thankful for written on each one.  My husband and I are each planning to do one each day.  When I was done I had about 50 or so circles ready for all that wonderful thankfulness!

After I had punched out all my circles, I went back and put a small hole punch at the top of each one so that they could easily be hung on my tree branches.  I was able to punch like four or five at a time so it went pretty fast.  Once the holes were punched, we wrote some reasons why were thankful and simply slipped the branch through the small hole and let it hang.  Voila!

I thought our thankful tree would make a great dining room table centerpiece so that is where I headed with my finished tree, complete with a few thankful leaves for the first few days of November.  My husband was very sweet and said he was thankful for his "wonderful wife" on the first day!  What a guy!  We plan to continue adding "leaves" each day to our tree and are enjoying being able to reflect about all that we are grateful for this holiday season.

 Oh..I also put the extra "leaves" and some markers to write with in a cute little leaf dish I had lying around from my fall decor.  That way it is easy to grab a circle, write on it, and hang it on the tree each day. 

I hope you enjoyed our fun family project!  I would love to continue this as a tradition when we have little ones running around one day.  And while we don't spend Thanksgiving at our house, we might have to take our little thankful tree to my parents' house so they can add to it on the days we are there as well!  Hear that mom...make room for my tree somewhere!! :)

Anyone else trying to reflect this November?  Trying the 30 days of Thankfulness?  Anyone else making a tree? 

{Home Decor} Last-Minute Idea to Dress Up Your Pumpkins WITHOUT Carving

Hello everyone! I am back today with a decorating tip for a last minute Halloween project.  If you have waited until the last minute to carve your pumpkins before trick or treating tomorrow night, here is a quick project that you can do to dress up those pumpkins without getting out the knives or carving tools.  And using one of my favorite things: MOD PODGE!  So if you're looking for a last minute project, get your pumpkin, some scrapbook paper, and some Mod Podge and join me in decorating your pumpkin in a super cute way.  You can either add a letter to your pumpkin (I chose to use the first letter of our last name) or your house numbers, OR you could even put one letter on multiple pumpkins to spell out a word.  It's totally up to you!  Get creative!

The supplies you will need for this project are:

• A pumpkin (I am using one of my white pumpkins that I got a while back because we already dressed up our orange pumpkins with some faces from a Martha Stewart pumpkin tattoo kit.)
• A computer and printer
• Scrapbook paper of your choice 
• Mod Podge
• Craft paintbrush 
• Ballpoint pen
• Ruler

 The first thing you will want to do is measure your pumpkin to see how to tall to make your letter.  After measuring mine, I thought a 6 inch tall letter would work perfect.

Next, you will want to get on your computer and open up a new Microsoft Word document.  Then select Insert and click on Word Art.

Just choose the simple Word Art all the way on the top left.  Once you have the Word Art window open, select a font to use for your letter.  I chose to use Curlz MT because I wanted something cutesy but you could use whatever you like!  Then type you letter in the box and click OK.

Once you click OK, your Word Art will appear on the page.  At this point, you can use the formatting tools for size, located all the way to the right at the top, to make your letter the correct height.  I made mine 6 inches like I measured for at the beginning.  I also adjusted the width to 3.5 inches wide to make it look proportionate. 

Next, I chose to make the line around the S a little bit thicker so that it would be easier to trace (more on that in a minute).  I did that by clicking on Shape Outline and Weight and choosing the 2 1/4 pt line.

Then, you are ready to print! (Now at this point I just want to share that I do have a Cricut machine that I could have cut out the letter S, however, not everyone has this machine at their convenience so I thought I would show how to make it for those who don't have one.  If you do have one, you can always use it!  Plus, mine is currently tucked away in the closet and I didn't feel like getting it out for this quickie of a project.)

Once your letter is printed out, place your letter on top of your scrapbook paper and hold it still with your hand while you trace it with a ballpoint pen.  Make sure you push pretty hard so that your pen makes an indentation on your scrapbook paper.

Then, you will want to cut out what you traced.  It can be hard to see your indents sometimes when cutting, especially if you used dark colored paper like me.  But, if you turn your paper over to the white side, it can be much easier.  (It is hard to see the indents in these pictures but in real life they are easier to see, trust me!)

Before you start to glue your letter onto your pumpkin, take a wet paper towel and clean off the surface of your pumpkin.  I, also, then dried it with another dry paper towel.

Once your pumpkin is clean and dry, you will take your letter and place it face down on a piece of paper and brush some Mod Podge all over the back of it.  You have to do it gently if your letter is thin in some places like mine or else you could rip it.  

Then get to work placing your letter on your pumpkin.  You will have to use your fingers to move the letter around to get it in the right position as you go.  The Mod Podge takes a while to dry so you will have time to move it around.

Once you get the letter in the correct position on the pumpkin, you can brush Mod Podge over the letter so that it will basically be sealed onto the pumpkin.  The Mod Podge looks white at first but will dry clear.  If you have any places that aren't sticking well, perhaps along one of the ridges in the pumpkin, you can use your fingers to smooth it down and get it to stick better.

I let the first coat of Mod Podge dry and then I went back and did a second coat just because I knew this pumpkin was going to be outside exposed to the elements.  Let your second coat dry and VOILA! Put your pumpkin outside and display it proudly for all those trick-or-treaters tomorrow!

I hope you enjoyed today's last minute Halloween Decor post!  Did anyone decorate their pumpkins in a fun and creative way this year?