How to make a simple Thanksgiving garland with your family. A great gratitude activity to bring the family together.
Updated September 2022
Like many parents we know, this time of year we try to focus our family’s attention on what we are thankful for. It can be tricky to do so, with all of the stores advertising big sales and shopping.
So we made a thankful bunting and it was the perfect gratitude activity for Thanksgiving. It gives you the chance to:
- talk about what you are thankful for,
- Connect with your kids over the conversation and the craft,
- And create side by side.
- Plus, it gives you a new piece of decor for your home!
Before we get started, we’re going to share a bit about about the paint sticks we used for this Thanksgiving art activity.
We used Kwik Stix, which they sent us for free to try. (Although we’ve been using and loving their paint sticks on our own for the past 6 months.) This post is sponsored by Kwik Stix and, as always, all opinions expressed are my own.
Kwik Stix are a low-mess alternative to paint.
They are basically tempera paint in a solid stick form. Using them is incredible as the color glides onto the paper very smoothly, a bit like oil pastels, but the paint quickly dries to a hard, smudge-free paint surface. And the colors are wonderful and vibrant! Plus we liked that they played well with markers as you’ll see below.
You can buy Kwik Stix in a variety of colors and sets at craft stores, as well as on Amazon.
(We used the basic color set pictured above as well as the neon set and the metallic set. They are all pretty awesome. We definitely recommend you give these a try.)
What are you thankful for? Before creating the thankful bunting, sit down and talk with your family about what you are each thankful for.
Gratitude is proven to buoy happiness and even improve health!
Talking about what you are thankful for can be a great way to foster family spirit and a sense of contentment so we recommend doing this activity often, not just at Thanksgiving.
Since Thanksgiving is around the corner, though, we extended the idea to create a thankful bunting.
DIY Thanksgiving Garland
MATERIALS
- Sturdy white paper, such as cardstock or watercolor paper
- Scissors
- Tape
- Black permanent markers, such as Sharpies
- Kwik Stix paint sticks
- (Optional) Sewing machine
*You can buy Kwik Stix paint sticks on Amazon, at Michael’s (in stores and online), at Walgreens stores, and at some toy stores.
INSTRUCTIONS
- Cut your paper into triangles
Any size triangles are fine. We cut each of our standard-size (9 x 12 inch) sheet of watercolor paper into 10 triangles, but you can make your bunting triangles as big or small, even or uneven as you like.
- Tape a series of triangles down on your work surface, to hold them in place
As you can see, we covered the table with a large piece of brown contractors’ paper first to protect our work surface.
- Draw on your flags
Use a sharpie to draw pictures of things you are thankful for.
- Add color!
Use the Kwik Stix, or any coloring tool, to add color to your thankful drawings.
- Add words (optional)
If you’d like, you can also add the words for the things you are thankful for. Or just leave the drawings.
As you can see, the Kwik Stix paint sticks work equally well over as well as underneath the marker drawings and words.
- Create your thankful bunting
Arrange the triangle artworks, intermixing them, and sew them together into one long bunting.
If you don’t have a sewing machine, or don’t want to sew them, here are two alternatives:
– Use a hole punch to punch holes in the top corners of each triangle, then weave yarn through all the holes to string them all together.
– Use a long piece of tape to hold them together. You can keep the tape you used for holding the triangle pieces in place and simply fold it over to the back, or use a new piece of tape.
- Hang your bunting up!
Finally, hang your new thankful bunting up where everyone can see it!
Some of what we are thankful for right now:
Friends, family, colors, nature, the earth, outer space, books, the color purple, “everything”, Thanksgiving dinner, turkeys, our house, pets, the alphabet.
Kwik Stix Paint Sticks are
- Low-mess
- Easy to use
- Quick drying
- Portable
- Vibrantly colored
- Reasonably priced
So get yourself some Kwik Stix to add to your art supply arsenal. (They would make great gifts and stocking stuffers, too, but we’re not sure we’ll be able to wait that long.)
Thanks again to Kwik Stix for sponsoring this post; as always all opinions expressed are my own.
Want even more creative ideas?
Check out our Thanksgiving Creativity pack!
Full of wonderfully fun ideas to help your family practice gratitude this season, this 38-page printable eBook includes: Drawing Prompts, Conversation Starters, Art Projects, and more!
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