Family Blessing Tree

I'm so excited about my latest project ~ even if it purposely won't be completed for many months.  It's our "Family Blessing Tree" and it serves 3 purposes....
1:  To remind our family of how God is always faithful ~ we know we have been called to adopt, even though it's been a sometimes overwhelming process of "how are we going to afford this?", we know God will provide.
2:  Someday when our boys are home and old enough to understand, they can look at this and know how loved and wanted they were by so many people.....even before they knew them.
3:  To have a fun new piece of artwork in my house :)

How does it work?  Basically, when someone helps out towards our adoption, they get a "leaf" with their name on it for our tree.  Of course, this doesn't include only financial donations, but also donations of time (babysitting our kids while we go get fingerprints) and services (like our friend who notarized stacks of papers for free!)

Here's what I'm envisioning our tree will look like someday...

How does it get to that point?  First I gathered all my supplies...a canvas, some scrapbooking papers, a circle punch, Krylon spraypaint (pebble), ModPodge (not pictured) and some Americana paints by DecoArt ~ Burnt Orange and Dark Chocolate.

First I spraypainted my canvas.  Then I realized it was the exact same color as our living room walls.  So I re-spraypainted it an off-white creamy color. 
The next step was to draw an outline of a tree (my husband actually did this for me) and paint it.  I also stenciled the word "blessed" and painted that in as well.

The canvas was looking a little blah, so I added a stripe around the edge for a more "finished" look.

Now comes the fun part!  Each time someone donates something - their time, finances, etc. towards our adoption, I get to punch out a circle, write their name on it (or they can write a message), and modpodge it right on!  An instant way to remember the generosity of our friends and family!

Here's what our Blessing Tree is looking like currently...

And again, what it may look like someday...

You could take this basic idea and change it to suit your needs ~ it could be an actual family tree, or what about a Thankfulness Tree to work on for Thanksgiving this year?

Want to see your name in the lights.....er, on a leaf?  You can check out Our Adoption Journey for a list of our current fundraisers!

Linking this up to a few of my favorites ~ check them out!!

I'm also entering this project in "Crafting With The Stars" ~ hope over and visit me there, because who knows, the number times my project is viewed might help me in the competition!