Days 16, 17, 18, 22 - Prayer Tree project

A few years ago Joe and I had what we called a prayer tree in our house. It went from floor to ceiling in our bedroom and looked like this:We would write things we were praying for on "leaves" (you can see the yellow paper on leaf-shapes). It helped to write out prayers, and also served as a reminder to be praying for things (especially specific things for each other). The idea was to take the leaves off and put them in a book with the way God answered that prayer. We weren't good about following through with that last part, but it was still neat to look at things we had written and think about it (even if we didn't record it). I've missed us doing that, so we're recreating a prayer tree. This time I'm making a smaller (and more 3D) one, but we still plan to put prayer leaves on it.

Here were the supplies I started with: (the newspaper and packing paper missed the photo op)

It was cool, I said "Joe, I need a piece of wood about this long" and in about two minutes he busted out the saw we're borrowing to install our wood floors (thanks Brock!) and cut one for me!

I used mostly coat hangers to make the frame, the covered that with packing paper and tape...

And then added a few layers of paper mache.
Joe helped on the last day - we had a really good conversation while working on it. I think I need to reinforce the base a bit more, and I'll add more (smaller) branches. It's bonsai-ish since our house has a bit of an Asian theme (at least, it will once we get enough done on it to decorate).