Silver Lining: DIY Thankful Tree (and how to transform it into a decoration for all seasons!)

Each November, our family has a tradition - we make a huge list of everything we're thankful for. In previous years, we've put them on strips of paper in a jar to read the next fall. But this fall, I wanted to make it into a decoration. And not just any decoration - one that I can change to use throughout the year! AKA lazy man's decorating: make one craft and then reuse it all year long. That's my style :)

Here's what I did:

DIY GRATITUDE TREE

MATERIALS:

1 mason jar

2 branches (I couldn't find any good ones outside so I bought mine from the floral section of Hobby Lobby for $4 each)

two pieces scrapbook paper in fall colors (I added a third to decorate the base of the jar)

circle hole punch (I got mine a few years ago and use it all the time (most recently, for my calendar here and paint chip mobile here). If you have an automated cutting machine you can use that. Or, If you're really ambitious you can skip the hole punch and cut out leaf shapes by hand!

regular hole punch

fall-colored ribbon

wire cutter

DIRECTIONS:

Trim the base of the branch down using wire cutters. This is the hardest part of the entire project, and my husband did it in about three minutes.
Place the branches in the mason jar.
Tie ribbon around the rim of the mason jar.
Punch circles out of the scrapbook paper (or cut leaf shapes, or whatever you decide)
Punch a regular hole punch in each circle (you'll use this hole to hang your paper on the tree)
Write one thing you're grateful for on each paper and hang it on the tree!

Easy as that!

And now for a bonus - here are some ideas for turning the tree into a decoration for all seasons. You can always cut different themed scrapbook paper out (for Christmas you could do a service tree, for summer you could do a summer activities bucket list, etc.). Or, if you get sick of paper on the tree, here are some cheap alternatives.

WINTER:

Although I love the service tree idea, I decided to decorate my tree with cheap dollar store ornaments. You could also add a homemade popcorn garland for a non-evergreen Christmas tree!

SPRING:

This tree would be a perfect Easter decoration, with the spring colors and fun feel. I used scrapbook paper, dollar store party favors, and pink tulle to spring-ify my tree.

SUMMER:

I love the summer bucket list idea. But if you don't want to do that, you can use buttons to decorate for the 4th of July! These buttons had a large enough hole that I could just stick it straight on the branch, but if it was smaller I would have had to use some thread to tie them on.