Some rough 40 year old cherry that I had in my lumber rack. This cherry is really nice looking once milled.

I joint and thickness the board to 3/4".

I take the boards down to 9" in width.

I found some cool tree vector art online that I was able to print out for my template. You can watch this video on how I did it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOL5MbYyqpk

Since I used cherry for the bottom boards, I wanted the tree to be made out of a lighter lumber so I milled up some curly maple to 1/4" in thickness.

The middle maple board wasn't wide enough so I had to glue a couple of strips on where the tree branch crossed over to the left board.

This is me glueing on the extra strips.

Final positioning of the tree on the maple boards.

Off to the bandsaw to cut the tree out. I didn't cut out each individual branch, I stuck with the larger branches.    

I started to really like this project at this point. The tree looked awesome on the cherry.

I used a spindle sander to sand in between the branches.

What I couldn't reach with the sander, I used 120 grit paper by hand. I also use the sandpaper to ease the edges.

Time to glue the tree to the boards. I used tape to help me line up everything.

Be sure to not move the tree parts around while glueing them. You want to make sure they still line up once they are clamped.

I found the quick clamps did a pretty good job.

I wiped some denatured alcohol on the board to see if I had any dried glue that I needed to sand. If I did, the alcohol wouldn't soak into the board and I would look like a dry spot.

I finish sanded with 220 grit sand paper.

For the finish, I chose to go with the Tried & True varnish oil.

It's really thick, so wipe it on thin and come back with a clean cotton cloth to wipe off the excess.

I hung the 3 panels with a french cleat. They were 1 1/2 wide, 8 inches long and 3/4" thick.