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Leaves of Gratitude
by Heather Harden
After the harvest, most farming cultures had a feast of gratitude. It was a time to thank the earth for the gifts of the harvest and a time for the community to celebrate.
In this country we celebrate Thanksgiving Day, a day to be grateful for the bounty in our lives.
This month is the first of two projects based on a gratitude practice. The project this month is a centerpiece for your Thanksgiving table created during the month using a daily gratitude practice.
Tools:
- Glue Gun & glue gun sticks
- Glue stick (packaged in a tube, much like lipstick)
- Scissors
- Markers, crayons, colored pencils
- Plate or scrap of wood to rest glue gun
- Optional: Heavy duty scissors or wire cutters
Materials:
- Card Stock – white and/or colored – this is available at most craft stores that carry scrapbooking supplies. It can be purchased by the sheet in a wide variety colors. Make sure card stock can be used in your printer.
- Bamboo skewers
- Base for the centerpiece – this can be a live plant (chrysanthemums are widely available this season) or a decorative basket with silk flowers and Styrofoam in the bottom of the basket to anchor the silk flowers.
- Downloads from this article – There are two downloadable files. One is a page of leaves in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors. The other is a page of outline images that can be colored or used as patterns to make cut paper designs on colored card stock.
Optional:
- A square of fabric or florist foil to cover the base of the plant pot
- Ribbon.
Daily Gratitude Practice
Determine a time period that you and your family will do the gratitude practice. It may be the entire month before Thanksgiving Day, two weeks before or a week before the holiday. Then, each day of that period, family members will pick a shape and decorate it, write something they are grateful for or a word of gratitude (love, thanks, grace, etc) mount the shape on a skewer and place it in the centerpiece. You are encouraged to do this at a time when the entire family can be present and involved with the process. Take time to fill your heart with gratitude and feel its full measure as you make your daily decoration. Studies have shown that being in gratitude for just 10 minutes can give your immune system a boost for six hours.
Preparing the Materials
Download – Leaves
One of the downloadable activity sheets is a collection of leaves in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors and a pumpkin. Download and print the file on white or cream card stock. Print as many sheets as necessary for each person to have a shape for every day of the gratitude practice. There are 18 leaves on this activity sheet. When cutting the leaves you can cut close to the outline or just cut the general shape.
To mount the shapes on skewers, use the glue gun to run a small line of glue on the blunt end of the skewer and gently press the glue on to the back of the shape.
A quick note about safety; glue guns get hot enough to burn your fingers and mar the work surface. Protect the work surface from stray globs of glue by covering it with newspaper or baking parchment.
It could be valuable to prepare several days worth of shapes in advance to keep the daily gratitude practice spontaneous.
Download – Outlines of Fall Shapes
The other down loadable activity sheet is a variety of fall shapes that can be printed on card stock colored using crayons, colored pencils or makers and cut out.
The shapes can also be cut out and traced onto colored card stock. For example, trace the maple leaves on red, orange or yellow card stock, draw veins on leaves to add depth and color.
Trace the entire acorn shape on tan paper and cut it out. Trace the acorn “hat” on darker brown paper, remove the pattern and make a smooth line connecting the two sides of the “hat” & cut out. Apply glue stick to the back of the acorn “hat” and press it onto the tan part of the acorn
Carefully cut out and trace the sun shape onto orange card stock and the center on yellow card stock for an autumn sun. A sunflower can be made by tracing the sun shape twice on yellow cardstock and adding a brown center. Trace around a drinking glass or small can that is roughly the same size as the center circles. Use a marker to make dots on the center sunflower for added detail. Glue the two sun shapes together off-setting the petals and glue the brown circle in the center.
Mount these shapes on the skewers in the same manner as the leaves were mounted.
Assembling the Center Piece
If you are using a live plant, arrange the fabric or florist foil around the plant pot and secure it with ribbon or decorative string. Place a container under the plant to protect your tablecloth and table. You can trim the skewers with heavy duty scissors or wire cutters to vary the height of the decorations. Gently insert the decorated skewers into the flowerpot.
If you have chosen to use a decorative basket as the base of your center piece, place the Styrofoam in the bottom of the basket. The Styrofoam should take up most of the bottom of the basket and should be 2 – 3” deep.
Arrange the silk flowers in the basket by firmly pushing the stems into the Styrofoam. You can use individual flower stems or use a “bush” arrangement that has many stems connected at the bottom. Frequently the bush is more economical than buying individual stems. The bottom of the arrangement may need to be trimmed to fit the basket.
Placed the large stem of the bush arrangement in the center of the Styrofoam, then fan the stems to fill out the basket.
Insert the skewers into the Styrofoam around the silk flowers or leaves.
Feast Day Activities
As part of your Thanksgiving Day celebration, supply each family member and guest with a leaf or shape mounted on a skewer and a pen. Ask each person to write something they are thankful for or a word of gratitude and add it to the centerpiece.
If your have some bored wee folks, print several copies of the outlines of fall shapes that they can color while waiting for dinner. These can be cut out and used as additional holiday decorations.
I close the article this month, with heartfelt gratitude that I have the opportunity to share my creativity with you each month. I hope I am able to inspire you to find new ways to use your own creativity.
- Heather
Heather Harden has been an avid crafter for all of her life who is fortunate to have had her parents and her grandmother as wonderful creative influences. She learned about process and detail through her work in the business world as a Programmer Analyst at Bath Iron Works. As the mom to a developmentally disabled adult daughter she honed her patience and creativity. She is currently pursing the fiber arts, as a dyer and a beginning quilter.
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