Thankful Tree

On Wednesday, Little Man and I sat down to make an art project incorporating what he is thankful for.

I wanted to use something different besides the same old construction paper we've been using.  I decided to make the tree out of cardboard.  We have more than enough cardboard at work, so before G (dad) took the trash to the street I snagged myself some.

I drew a bare tree to the best of my ability.  I also then cut it out.  This turned out to be a bit challenging in parts because I didn't look at the back when I was drawing.  The exact part where I was having to cut out the narrow branches is the exact part that had two layers of cardboard.  Nice.

It still turned out alright... only a few blisters on my fingers. :)

I printed off a few leaf patterns from the internet, traced them, and cut them out.

(Little Man isn't able to cut on the lines yet.  C'mon.  He's 3)

It was still very much his project though.  He gave me his list of things he was thankful for and even told me which leaf to write the item on.  I kind of felt bad that I wrote "Nana" on the smallest leaf.  I tried using a big leaf, but he was set on the little guys.  Hope she wasn't offended! :)

He painted the tree brown with a sponge.

Then he put glue on the leafs and put "parkles" on them.

We did one color at a time.  Yellow leaves got gold glitter, red leaves got red glitter, green leaves got green glitter and the rest remained plain.

 (There are no pictures of the glittering process because I had to make sure he didn't spill the entire bottle!)

Here is the tree trunk all painted. 

I love how the sponge added depth and dimension and some places are thicker brown than others.

Next, we glued all the leaves on the tree.

I made a little sign and hung it on the fridge.

The leaf placement isn't perfect, but it's Little Man's tree!

Isn't it beautiful?

Wanna know what my favorite leaf is?

He even said it a few times.  I had to keep telling him I already wrote it.

LOVE that kid! :)