Family Trees

Back in the day Martha Stewart used to sell a family tree kit that included a die-cut tree and leaves to write your ancestors’ names on. I was interested in it but at the time I was a poor college student so I shamelessly recreated it on my own by tracing it in Illustrator.

I had ambitions of making several for Christmas presents but ran out of steam after just one (no big surprise there). After we had E I wanted to put one together for us but by then I had lost the original files (I think they’re on a Mac zip disk somewhere in my basement) and I wanted to make mine bigger than 8 1/2″ by 11″ so I basically dropped it.

Until I saw these family tree kits for sale at the Beehive Bazaar. They closely resemble the tree kit I saw before and knocked off myself but they are a bigger size (18″ by 20″). They’re nice and come with instructions, the tree, leaves, etc… I bought one for $20 at the bazaar but you can order then for $15 online (d’oh!). If you want to get a bunch of them for gifts the price drops to $10.

The main thing you’re paying for is the 18″ by 20″ piece of paper with the tree itself printed on it. If you’re crafty you could put together the other parts on your own (i.e. draw your own paper leaves and cut them out, buy a glue stick, etc…) but it’s a hassle to draw a tree in Illustrator and find a way to get it printed at such a large size. Besides, the kits are well made and having everything together already together in a kit makes it much more likely that I’ll actually get it put together.