Every Day Gratitude

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, gratitude has been especially on my mind. I desire our family life to be one of “every day gratitude.”

To help remind us to be grateful, I made a  “Give Thanks” banner for our mantle this weekend. It felt so good to craft for fun! I used my new Martha Stewart circle edge punch as the foundation of the banner . I love Martha Stewart punches and jumped at the opportunity to review this punch. It makes circles from 6″ – 12″ and is a pretty amazing tool!

The punch made the banner really easy to make.

I first punched 6″ and 8″ circles. I then spray painted large Rusty Pickle chipboard letters that I have had in my stash for years. Once they dried, I used my Xyron Creatopia to add adhesive to everything and stick the layers together. Lastly, I strung the circles together with some thin rope.

I imagine that I will use this circle punch for many years to come for lots of banners and projects. (Note: You can get the circle punch exclusively on HSN and HSN.com tomorrow. It is currently not available in stores. You can also get 20% off all other Martha Stewart craft projects on MarthaStewartCrafts.com with the code BLOG20.)

Gratitude has also been coming up in our conversations with Elias a lot. He has been very excited about the Toys ‘R Us Toy Book and has been consumed by wants. This has given us opportunity to talk with him about the importance of being thankful – as well as the true meaning of Christmas.

This Christmas season we will be “adopting” a family in need and I look forward to talking with him more about serving others. We will also buy animals for a family served by World Vision and talk about how that gift will impact them.

I have also picked up my gratitude journal again and started writing down the things I am grateful for. This practice was inspired by my friend Ann’s phenomenal New York Times Best Selling Book One Thousand Gifts. (If you haven’t yet read it, do yourself a favor and buy a copy. It will change your life.)

If you are looking for some tools to document thankfulness, go check out Paper Coterie’s Gratitude collection. They are offering 50% off the entire collection with the code THANKFUL2012. I made the below journal (only $9 with the code!). Isn’t it darling?

Paper Coterie’s Gratitude collection includes canvases, journals (both daily and plain journals), photo books, memory keepers. It also include Gratitude posters for your family to record what they are thankful for. (Check out Becky Higgins’ family gratitude poster post here and you will definitely want one for your home.) Many of the items in this collection would be great Christmas gifts as well.

I hope these tools and ideas help you think about cultivating gratitude in your family.

How do you incorporate gratitude into your family’s every day life?

Disclosure: Some links are compensated affiliate links. Circle punch provided to me at no charge. All crafting my own. 🙂