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Sorry for the delay in posting. I scheduled this post to show up early this morning, but something happened and it didn't work!!!
Welcome to a special edition of One Creative Weekend. Before I get the special party started, I get to announce the winner from last week's Pick Your Plum Giveaway!
Drumroll, please . . . . . The winner (selected at Random by Rafflecopter) is Laura McBride! Congratulations, Laura. I hope you enjoy your prize.
Now, let's party!
Welcome to the Thanksgiving Treats
and Fall Fun Link Party!
November is here, and that means Thanksgiving is right around the corner. It's the perfect time to share all of your delicious Thanksgiving dishes and decor, along with your fun Fall-themed treats and projects. If you have other ideas to share, I want to see them, but please save them for another week. This party is for Fall links only.
Help get us inspired!
One Creative Mommy has joined up with host: Claiming Our Space and co-hosts: Love and Laundry, House on the Way, Mamal Diane, Jane's Adventures in Dinner and 4 You With Love to bring you our own Thanksgiving Treats and Fall projects! Make sure to visit each of the hosts to see what they have created for the party after you have linked up your post.
Family Thankful Tree
Tutorial and Free Printable
For the last few years, we've spent Thanksgiving morning writing things we're thankful for on simple Fall shapes. This year, I decided to turn it into a month-long tradition. Instead of listing what we're thankful for all at once, we'll add them to our tree all month long! This tree may look complicated, but you can do it! (I'll show you how.)
My tree is made from brown-paper packing material that arrived with a package earlier this week (perfect timing). You could also make it out of brown craft paper or recycled paper sacks (just tape the pieces together on the printed side). I want my tree to last from year to year, so I mounted it on a tri-fold presentation board.
- Crumple your tree material. (This is the fun part!) I had way more than I needed. You need just enough to match the height of your board.
- Spread out the top half of the paper.
- Cut the top half into four or five sections. (I used five, but I ended up trimming off most of the fifth branch.)
- Trim each of the five branches into three smaller branches.
- Begin to shape your branches by crumbling them up and then shaping them into swirls.
- Continue with the other branches, allowing them to overlap and trimming branches when they are too long.
- Too many branches? No problem. Cut them off completely, or leave short stubs. (You can hide any crazy spots by creatively arranging the wrinkles and taping or gluing them into place.
- Affix the trunk and branches to the presentation board using masking tape, double-sided tape, glue, or a combination of all three! I used masking tape for the trunk and scrapbook tape runner for the branches.
Now you're ready to display your board and start adding leaves. My dream was to create a silhouette file and let a borrowed machine do all the leaf cutting for me, but life got in the way. If life gets less hectic, I'll post that for you next week. In the meantime, I've created printable leaves for you (but you'll have to cut them out the old fashioned way, I'm afraid). OCM_Thankful Tree Leaf Printable (Click to download.)
Depending on the age of your kids, keep a marker, masking tape and envelope of leaves next to the tree, and let them add leaves whenever they feel inspired. (I plan to let them add more leaves every year until the tree is so full that we need a new one. It will be fun to read the old leaves at the beginning of November each year.) Inspired by this video, I'll be sharing something I'm grateful for on Facebook every day this month. Have fun teaching your family about showing gratitude every day!
Now that you have seem my Thankful Tree, it is time for you to share your projects, crafts, and recipes. Link up whatever you have come up with that is Thanksgiving or Fall related via the linky tool below.
Your project will show up on all the host's blogs so you only need to link up once but, remember, all of us have different things we are sharing for the party. So make sure to visit Love and Laundry, House on the Way, One Creative Mommy, Mamal Diane, Jane's Adventures in Dinner, 4 You With Love and Claiming Our Space to check them all out.
The party will be up until Thursday, November 15 and then on Friday, November 16, each host will pick their favorite two link ups. So mark your calendar to check back to see if you were featured.
Just a few guidelines:
- We would appreciate if you would follow all the hosts.
- Link ups should be Thanksgiving or Fall related. (No shops or other link parties please)
- Try to visit some of the other link ups and leave a comment. Everyone loves visitors!
- You don't need to link back, but we would appreciate it if you would display the button on your blog or in your post to let your readers know about the party.
<center><a href="http://www.claimingourspace.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" src="http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg186/gooch100/NovemberButtonv3-format_zpsa8ac9b9a.jpg" /></a></center>
Ready to party?
Click here to see all the fantastic sites I like to link up with each week. This post was also shared at Fibro, Fit, and Fab!
My tree was featured:
Thanks so much for hosting. I have linked up 3 fun fall recipes. Enjoy!! Nichi
I love your thankful tree! My post includes a thankful tree but on a much smaller scale! Thanks for hosting the party! Lovin' all of the fall ideas!
Thanks for the party Heidi!
What a fun party....thank you so much for hosting. Had some trouble with my cropping, so sorry for the icky pic. I love your blog!!
That tree idea is super cute! gotta remember this one.
JoAnn
Love your thankful tree! Just subscribed to your site, thanks for hosting!
This is such a cute way to get our kids into thinking about being Thankful all month. I'm going to share this link on my FB page.
You have a wonderful blog! I love your Thankful Tree art project - what a great idea! Thank you for hosting. Have a wonderful weekend!
Thank you for hosting I'm all linked up and looking forward to hopping around Hugs and happy weekend wishes.
What a great idea!! Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving your sweet comments today. Love your blog! Can't wait to spend some time visiting the other links over the weekend!
Thank you so much for hosting! That adorable tree is right up my alley!! Have a wonderful weekend. :)
I love your tree!! I'm hosting a Thanksgiving party all month long (until Thanksgiving) and would love for you to come over and link it up! This is in addition to my normal Tasteful Tuesday party that runs every Tuesday. Thank you for taking the time to celebrate Thanksgiving and be THANKFUL for all our blessings. http://www.nap-timecreations.com/2012/10/pull-apart-pumpkin-maple-bread-and.html
Thanks for co hosting. What a cute idea. I love the tree. Have a wonderful weekend :)
I love this. Too bad I just threw away some of the same paper this week. Thanks for being a great co-host.
What a beautiful idea, thanks for sharing! Thanks, also, for hosting. :)
Great idea, that tree is adorable, thanks for linking up on Super Sweet Saturday.
Steph
swtboutique.blogspot.com
Thanks, ladies! Love your sites.
What a wonderful idea! I love how you used the brown paper and how it's a family activity! Stopping over from Earning My Cape's super link party!
I linked up 2 posts:
1. Twenty-Two Days of Thanks: Day Two (on Fibro, Fit and Fab!) where I talk about how I'm grateful for my family.
2. My recipe for Pumpkin Muffins (Soy, Fish and Nut-Free, Can Be Milk-Free) - my newest and fast-becoming favorite fall muffin recipe! :)
Thanks for hosting!
Love this thankful tree! great post! I gave our party another shout out!
http://4you-withlove.blogspot.com/2012/11/holiday-fun-dont-miss-out.html
Marilyn
Thanks for visiting up and linking!
Great craft, I can't wait to see what my four year old says he's grateful for! Thanks for linking up on Super Sweet Saturday.
Steph
swtboutique.blogspot.com
Great idea! I love that it helps you remember to think about being grateful. :-) Thanks for sharing at The Fun In Functional!
I love your tree! So awesome! Thanks so much for sharing at Mom On Timeout! Have a great week!
Thank you very much for sharing your Family Thankful Tree Tutorial and Free Printable at the Real Housemom's Fabulous Fridays Link Party! I really love the idea of spreading the project out to make it a month long tradition. Great idea to mount the tree on a presentation board so you can use it year after year!
Love your printable and thankful tree. Thanks so much for sharing at last Wednesday's Adorned From Above Link Party. This weeks party is live. The link to the party is
http://www.adornedfromabove.com/2012/11/wednesdays-adorned-from-above-link_14.html
Can't wait to see you there.
Have a great week.
Debi
Hi! Just wanted to let you know I featured your thankful tree on my post yesterday :o) Love it!
http://www.nap-timecreations.com/2012/11/my-thankful-tree-some-of-yours.html