This instructable will show you how to create a thumbprint wedding tree by using simple art materials.

The thumbprint wedding tree is a nice way to get memory of every guest of a wedding (or a birthday, or whatever party you want) by collecting their thumbprints. You can use it instead of a book, and wedded can exhibit it at home.

Here you can find my own trial of a thumbprint wedding tree. It was made for about 140 guest.

Step 1: Prepare Your Sheet of Paper.

Use the spray glue to fix the sheet of paper on your sheet of cardboard. It is important because paper could be wet and corrugate with the acrylic painting providing an unaesthetic result.

Step 2: The Pattern of the Tree.

Make the pattern of your tree. To make this pattern, I drew a tree, scanned it and transformed it on computer. You can print this pattern if you want to use it, it already is at the correct scale (50x65cm). Don't forget to set your printer to print it in several pages mode in order to get the correct scale of the tree.

Use the tracing paper to trace the tree from the pattern and then, retrace it on your paper. Please note that the pattern is designed for about 200 guests.
You should better check if the dimensions of your pattern fits with the number of guests. As you can see in the picture, I made a draft with 200 thumbprints, but I only needed 140 thumbprints. So I removed some branches (no tree were injured during this experiment ;) ).

Imprimer arbrebis.pdf
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Step 3: Paint Your Tree.

Once you traced the tree borders, you can carefully paint the trunk with the color of your choice. Be careful, acrylic painting can let some ugly marks, you should better make a draft before. I tried to paint my tree using a stencil, but it is difficult to cut, and the result is dreadful, as you can see on my draft.

The heart is for the wedded's thumbprints.

Step 4: The D-day: Print the Thumbprints!

Once your tree is painted, you can ask your party's guests to print their thumbprints on it. If you don't want to explain 140 times what guests have to do, you can put an explanation next to the tree. Here you can find the explanation I wrote for the wedding, but it is in french.

My advices, to avoid mistakes: one person at a time, so you can check the result. And a draft paper, for thumbprints training. And a towel to wash hands!