The Wishing tree...

With the new year rounding the corner, I thought it might be fun to take a tutorial that I did for Brother International and give it a different twist. I created a glittering Christmas tree for the holidays using a beautiful assortment of glittered cardstocks and my ScanNCut. I created this tree with my family and used a few other sizes and let the kids make their own trees for the holidays.

With what has been happening in our lives lately, I thought it might be nice to allow this tree to act as a yearly reminder to our family of where our hearts are at the end of each year. So instead of this being the Glittering Christmas Tree that I thought I would share on my blog... this is going to serve as our families Wishing Tree.

We spent the holidays with our family in California this year. Due to my Grandmothers diagnosis we planned a quick impromptu trip to visit our families and see her one last time. It was hard. Hard on all of us as we knew that as we said good bye, this was most likely the last time that we get to see her. As hard as it was, there still was some peace in our family that she would not be in pain for much longer.

After returning home, I got to thinking of our kids and how hard this must be on them seeing not only their great grandmother ill, but also seeing their grandmother and mother saddened. I didn't want this to haunt their holiday so I got the idea to take this Christmas tree and give it a new purpose.

The Wishing Tree

 This tree is decorated with thumb tacks that have designs glued to them. These tacks press nicely into the tree form and allow you to post pictures and cards to your tree.

I thought it would be nice to have the kids take some time and write down wishes and add them to the tree. We can store the tree through the year and when we bring it out the next holiday season, the wishes will be there as a reminder of where their hearts were the year previously. This is a wonderful way for children to see themselves grow and for parents to see growth in character through the years. Have your children date their wishes and you can keep adding to your tree each year.

    

For full directions of this project click here.


I hope this gives you an idea of a fun family craft that can be created easily during the holiday break and perhaps start a new family tradition in your household. It is never to late or to bleak to share hope with your children, I am excited for my kids to open up their wishes next year and see how much they have grown.

Thanks for the great year, wishing you and your family the best this New Year!


~Liz Hicks and Family ♥