Gratitude Garland...

Whew, I just finished cutting out 30 leaves and my hands are ACHING!!! But it was worth it. I finished the 'gratitude garland' - an idea I borrowed from Chris and which she borrowed from Heather!

Here is how I did it:

I found leaf templates, where else, but the Martha Stewart website. I enlarged the leaves on my copy machine to 145% to get the size I wanted. I then taped the leaves I enlarged to white card stock and cut out the shapes to form my templates. (I chose just three different leaf types.)

I used the templates I made to trace the leaves onto varying fall colors and patterns of scrapbooking card stock. I decided to make 30 leaves - 1 for each day in November.

I cut out each of the leaves, then punched holes in each, and finally strung them onto a fall ribbon. Each day, this will remind my husband and me to talk to the kids about what we are thankful for and we will write these things on a leaf.

Before our Thanksgiving meal we can read what we wrote on our garland throughout the month. I also figure this will be a neat keepsake to look back on over the years reminding us what our children were thankful for when they were so small. I think this will be a great yearly tradition!

By the way, you can find more great paper crafting ideas over at Kelli's blog so go give her a visit!

Also, Melissa at The Inspired Room has her Holiday Linky Love post up! Go visit her to get some more great inspiration for Holiday decoration. There are some crafty people out there in Blogland!