:: memory tree

I'm baaaaack...

two days in a row, wow I'm doing good.

As I said yesterday I have lots to share with you, and this is just one thing of many. This past week has been a whirlwind of activity in our nest. First, we celebrated my 39th birthday on the 4th of June, yes, I am officially on my victory lap as Papa put it. Second, we celebrated our youngest daughter's 5th grade graduation, so Elementary school is now a thing of the past for our family. Last but not least, is the greatest of our celebrations....High School Graduation...our oldest daughter graduated from High School this past Saturday.

As part of the decorations for her graduation party, I created this memory tree. I wish I could take credit for this idea, but I recently attended a birthday party for a friend & she had done something similar to this for a decoration so I thought I would create my own version.

All I needed to do was raid my yard waste pile from this springs tree pruning. I stripped what remained of any leaves and brought it inside & popped it into my trusty mason jar vase.  Saturday morning on my way home from the farmer's market I pulled off the road and plucked my lovely wildflower's from a ditch. I just love queen anne's lace, it is just so lovely and delicate.

The most difficult part of this project was going through lots of photo albums choosing photos and scanning them all {most of her photos are pre digital camera}. Once I had all of my photos scanned I made a layout on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet in adobe illustrator. I probably placed about 10 photos per sheet and tried to pair them up by size so I could cut them out and hang them back to back so it could be viewed all around...this sat on the center of our island for her party.

Once I had the photos laid out I printed them from my ink jet printer & took them to the kitchen to age them. I put the whole 8 1/2 x 11 sheet on a small baking sheet and poured our morning's coffee over the sheet to cover it. I popped it in a 250 degree oven for a few minutes then pulled it out & drained the excess coffee back into the pot to be re-used for the project. Then you put the sheet back in the oven to continue the drying process, once it's dry it will pull away from the baking sheet, it's a good idea to check it often. Once it was dry & ready to go I cut out the photos placed them back to back punched a hole in the top and tied them onto the branches using thin yarn. It's a little time consuming waiting for the paper to dry out, but over all this is a really simple project, and my daughter loved it. In fact, I think this may be a keepsake she can take with her to college and display in a vase or hang upside down as a photo mobile.

This is a great idea that could be used for so many occasions. 

So, why not make someone you love feel very special and share all of those wonderful memories....make a Memory Tree. This could also be used to display family photos on an every day basis, in fact I think I'll be trying something very similar soon, hmmm so many possibilities.

I hope to check in again with you next week, for now we are off to Nationals with our oldest wren. This will be her last club soccer tourney before she goes off to college to begin her soccer career there. We are so so proud of her and all of her accomplishments....

We Love You Squeezy!

{peace, love & hugs}

Carrie