Tree of Life

So I've crocheted myself out for a while, I have one headband to finish for somebody and then I'm going to take a break and focus on some jewelry I think. I'm edging my way there even now though and I've been working on a project for the last few days I thought I would share here. I made a tree of life, I've been seeing them everywhere and thought it would be fun to make. It was, but you can definitely tell this is my first ;). Unfortunately the site I originally found instructions at no longer exists and all the other sites were selling them not giving out instructions so I had to wing it based on my memory of the instructions I read, oh, a few months ago. For having virtually nothing to go by I think I did fairly well, but I'll definitely be making another one (that will hopefully turn out much better) and I'll try to do a tutorial along with that one. For now, here's a picture of mine: I used earthy colored stone chip type beads, with a couple purple and red ones thrown in, and I wrapped brown, gold, and green seed beads along the outer edge. To make the basic "form" I guess you'd call it, I wrapped 20 gauge wire around the bottom of a coffee thermos (mostly because for the size beads I wanted to use it seemed like an appropriate size circle, my next one will probably be smaller because I'm planning on using smaller beads), and I used 24 gauge wire to make the tree and wrap the seed beads around the circle. I also formed the loop at the top with the 24 gauge wire. I need to find some leather or twine so that I can hang this up in my window, as soon as I do I'll take a picture and post that as well. Anybody else out there making a Tree of Life and have any tips for those of us winging it? Would love to have you share them!