Thanksgiving Interactive Activity Tutorial

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    This Interactive Activity Tutorial post is 4 years old!  It was very popular at the time and it still feels like a great idea, so we thought we would share it with you again! Hope you love it. 

     I am so excited about this post because it is an idea I came up with after Lindsey's wedding and I have finally brought it into reality! You may remember for the guest sign in at my daughter's wedding reception, we used a frame filled with love idea.  It was such a popular idea and my husband, daughter and I had so much fun collaborating on it.  After the wedding was over, I was thinking that there had to be other applications for that type of interactive frame, because I loved the idea so much and I wanted to use it again.  Guess what! I came up with a bunch of ideas!  The first one is the frame I showed you above.  I found the free printable at LostBumblee.  I fell in love with it instantly because the words are a line from a favorite church hymn.  Also, it has three little owls at the bottom, and we are 3 Winks, so you know, I couldn't pass it up.  So, thanks Missie! 
     My idea is that this would be a great way to have family and friends actually Count Their Blessings during the Thanksgiving Season in an interactive way. Heaven knows that in this year, we need to search for gratitude to make it through the trials!  If you are having guests over for dinner, you could have them all write something and drop it into the frame.  It will be a visual reminder of all of our blessings and reasons to feel gratitude.  I gave you a tutorial here but this time I wanted to do things slightly less expensive and perhaps easier to change out.  Here is what I did. Click on the pictures.

I went to Micheal's and their end of season stuff was up to 80% off. I bought 2 of these $30 frames for about $5! What a coup!

On the first tutorial for the wedding I used masonite on the back, but this time I used the cardboard that the frame came packaged in. I just used my Xacto knife to cut it to size.

The frame came with a nice mat that I decided that I wanted to use since this is a 11 x 14 frame and the print is 8 x 10. So, I traced around the inside of the frame on the cardboard to figure out where to glue the mat and print.

Here are the mat and print glued down onto the cardboard.

I really wanted little wooden autumn leaves to drop into the frame, but no one had them and they were super expensive on line. I wasn't sure how large I needed to cut out my notch. But I cut it with my Xacto knife and a screw driver. (My husband would have used a different saw, but I didn't know where it was at the time.)

I eventually had to cut the notch wider and then I painted it.

Because the mat made the distance between the glass and the print narrower, I needed a little more depth in the frame. I glued Popsicle sticks around the edge to give it a little more lift.

I simply used tacks to attach the picture, mat and cardboard to the back of the frame. That way I can empty and reuse it from year to year. I love how it looks!

I finally found these leaf cupcake picks at Hobby Lobby. All of their Fall stuff was 40% off. I just broke off the toothpicks.

I piled the leaves in my leaf bowl with a couple of Sharpies. I don't have any little kids around my house anymore. If you do, you may want to use a washable marker.

   Next idea!  Just think, you could find a Christmas Countdown printable and use stars with numbers on them to drop in to count down the days until Christmas!  Here is a cute one from Our Southern Home.  Or, here is a cute one from Yellow Bliss Road.  I might do that for my grandchildren.  But, my next idea is going to be this one:

.    I love this line from "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing".  This print is from i should be mopping the floor.  It is perfect for my next idea.  This one is another frame filled with love, meaning the love we receive from God.  I thought wouldn't it be wonderful to have a visual reminder of the scriptures we read that touch us and the small and large miracles that happen in our daily lives?  This is still about gratitude and Thanksgiving, but all through the year.  I can hardly wait to get this interactive frame done because I already know a few things that I want to write on a heart and store in this frame so that on the days when I am blue, I can look at this and be reminded of His love for me.  Because, what is that other line that I love from the hymn? "Here's my heart, Oh take and seal it, Seal it for thy courts above."
      Perhaps you will have some of your own inspiration when it comes to this frame idea! If you do, send me a picture and tell me about it! Thanks for being here!