Monday, November 12, 2012

Chalkboard Leafed Thankful Tree

Hi everyone!  I'm still in full-blown Thanksgiving/Autumn decorating and crafting mode around here and I wanted to share with you all my latest project!



I decided to make a Thankful Tree for our living room using a couple of great oak branches I found (one with a bunch of leaves still attached--bonus!).



I've done a similar project in the past, with my boys, by cutting out leaf shapes from Autumn inspired scrapbook paper, but this year I decided to go a bit nontraditional and make chalkboard leaves. 

My oldest and I are thankful for Legos and coffee, respectively.




And my youngest? He's thankful for the Berenstain Bears. Love it!


 

This is, of course, a super simple project to make. First, I started out by finding a pattern I liked. I found my leaf template here.

I saved the picture in Microsoft Word and printed it on card stock so that it would be a bit sturdier when traced. 

I cut out my card stock leaf and traced it onto scrap chipboard that I had leftover from previous projects. I like using chipboard because it takes paint very well (without curling up) and is fairly easy to cut.

You can see in the first picture, below, the cut out chipboard leaves before I painted them (front and back) with two coats of chalkboard paint.


Next, I used my hole punch to make a tiny hole near the stem so that I could thread jute twine through when I was ready to hang the leaves up.

The third picture shows my little tip for keeping branches straight in a large bucket. Usually I will find another smaller container to fit inside my bucket to hold the sticks more securely.

Then, it's just a matter of hanging the chalkboard leaves on the branches and displaying it in a common area of your home.







19 comments:

  1. That is a fun project to do with kids.

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  2. i love this!

    so simple.

    so sweet.

    thanks for sharing :]

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  3. Great idea! It's always so funny to see what the kids are thankful for, especially when they're young!

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  4. What a fun and unique idea - thanks for sharing :) Visiting from Cowgirl Up. Have a lovely week.

    Blessings,
    Stephanie

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  5. this is a great idea, angela! and i love that you can reuse it!

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  6. Too cute and would be great with a child. Thanx for sharing...love your blog. Come on over to the royal blog sometimes and look around. Tiffany

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  7. Great project I love the idea and the container you used.

    Cynthia

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  8. I love this idea, I could use this on my tree I hung on the wall to go with the pine cones (and dried leaves I'll be adding tonight). Isn't chalkboard paint a versatile product. I used chalkboard paint the first time in 1989 to cover an entire section of a wall in my youngest sons room. He was only 3 at the time. It stayed that way until he was 14 because he and his friends loved it so much. It was a hit as no one else had anything like it at the time.

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  9. What a lovely Thanksgiving project your chalkboard leaves are, Angela, and I really also like your map of Paris on the wall--pretty!

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  10. Cute project - especially with little ones.

    Judy

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  11. I love this idea, very cool! Here from Wow Us Wednesdays!

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  12. Sweet little tree, love this idea! Visiting from Pam's at Treasure Hunt Thursdays!

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  13. This is great! I love anything chalkboard@!

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  14. What a terrific and fun reusable idea You are so clever!


    hugs x
    Crystelle
    http://www.crystelleboutique.com

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  15. What a sweet idea! ... My daughter is all grown up now, but she LOVED the Berenstain Bears too. She was an avid reader and had a huge stack of Berenstain Bears books by her bed. Every night she wanted to reread the entire stack before bed. She said she couldn't sleep if she didn't read them all!

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  16. Cute as always! Thanks for sharing!
    Stacey of Embracing Change

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Thank you so much for stopping by Number Fifty-Three! I look forward to your comments.