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Wednesday, November 27, 2013

'Tis the season to…..express your gratitude!

As families and friends gather for Thanksgiving, they may take turns at the dinner table sharing something they’re grateful for. Perhaps this year you’d like to give them new ways to do that creatively. Here are two ideas for involving your family and guests in what could become a yearly tradition. They are made of both commercial crafting supplies and non-traditional materials that you can find at The I.D.E.A. Store or in your own home. These projects were featured on WICD TV on November 14, 2013: http://www.wicd15.com/news/features/live-in-the-studio/stories/vid_184.shtml

On Thanksgiving Day, you can provide everyone with hand-cut feathers to add to this easy yarn ball turkey which is held together with toothpicks. I chose colorful used file folders for the feathers because of their cardstock weight. (The original inspiration comes from www.parents.com.) Because mine is front-heavy, it sits on a cardboard ring for balance, but you could use a plastic or metal lid instead. Because I did not use any glue, I can take the turkey apart so the yarn is ready to use for another project.



To extend your family’s opportunities to express their blessings, you could make a “gratitude board” and record them for whatever time period you choose: the whole month, the week of Thanksgiving, or – as I did -- for the twelve days leading up to and including Thanksgiving. You can find several versions of these boards online, but I used a folding game board as the “canvas” because it can be stored efficiently, can stand on its own, and is easy to add holes to for hanging.

You can cover the game board’s pattern, or let it inspire you. I chose a “Super Scrabble” board because it’s a game my husband and I enjoy playing. I made simple lightweight paper envelopes to hold tags which I cut from index card dividers. Use thin papers as tags if you want the envelopes to hold multiple tags for each day. I hole-punched the tags so they can be compiled after the holiday to revisit in future. I hung the envelopes with metal curtain clip hooks and paper fasteners so we can continue to play the game on this board, but you could attach your envelopes permanently to the board. Embellish your envelopes as you wish. I cut images from used Thanksgiving and seasonal greeting card fronts.



We hope you have much to celebrate this holiday season. Happy Thanksgiving!

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