Family is important. Knowing your roots, your heritage, can link you back to some incredible relatives you may not have known you were linked to. Whether you come from a large or small family, your genealogy is special. Here are some great ideas for creating your very own family tree in your home.
1. An Indoor Tree
For those who have a green thumb, this family tree is perfect for you. Here's what you'll need:
- Clothes Pins
- Small indoor plant/tree
- Marker
- Colorful Felt or Paper (optional)
- Glue (optional)
Once you’ve purchased a small, indoor tree from your local gardening store, you’ll be ready to begin tagging your family members. You can do so by using clothespins with your relative’s names on each pin and placing throughout the tree.
If you’d like your clothes pins to be a little more decorative, purchase some felt or use paper to cut out fun shapes. You can glue a small picture of your relative or write their name on the felt or paper and place it on the clothespin with a little glue. Now, your tree will have a pop of creativity!
2. Hand Painting Tree
If you have little ones, this will be a project that they will enjoy. Here’s what you’ll need:
- Acrylic painting paper or Canvas
- Brushes
- Acrylic paint (brown or black for tree trunk and any color for hands)
- Black pen or marker
Once you collect all of your materials, it’s time to start painting!
- Lay down your canvas and prepare the paint color you selected for the trunk of the tree.
- Paint a tree trunk with a few short branches. Let dry.
- Next, paint the inside of your hand, your children’s, spouses and even your pet’s paw! Place your hand (or paw) on a branch and press. You can also use thumbprints for the leaves.
- Pull up slowly. Let dry and repeat as many times for other members of your family.
And voila! You now have a family tree. You can add names next to each handprint/thumbprint or add a sweet quote or verse near the tree.
3. Birds on Tree Branches
This is a cute and crafty way to make your family tree a little more eye catching. Here’s what you’ll need:
- Print out or (for the artistic) paint a tree
- Use construction paper or a fun scrapbooking paper for your birds
- Glue stick
- Frame
Here are the steps:
- Create or print a bird silhouette stencil so that all your birds can match. You can also create various sized birds.
- Once your stencil is created, cut out your birds in either all the same colored paper or in various patterned paper.
- Then, write each of your relative’s names on the birds.
- Place a little glue on the back of each bird and lightly place onto a branch of your tree. Repeat until your tree is full of birds!
- Frame your tree and display it for all to see!
4. Printable Tree
When in doubt, the internet will have a tree stencil to follow or even a free, printable template with spaces to fill in! No matter what, your family tree will be special as you look back at all the significant and important people in your life.
