Fall Pumpkins

I don’t know about you but I am starting to get in the Christmas spirit – I have several projects that are waiting on me but before I start on Christmas I have one last fall project I wanted to share.

On Pinterest I found a really cute fall project from Today’s Fabulous Finds titled “Fall Pumpkin Patch”. You can click here for the inspiration behind my design. If you have not visited this blog I would encourage you to head on over (after you finish reading my blog of course) as Janet has some very creative projects especially using wood. Oh and check out her vintage door with the burlap wreath under her project gallery – love it!

When I was ready to start this project I first headed to my dad’s wood stash – as you might remember I have bragged about his scroll work before. After going through his piles of wood and selecting the right pieces for this project I first painted all of them brown.

Once the brown paint dried I got a little creative with my orange paint. I had two different colors of orange and was not happy with either one of them so I started mixing the two together until I got the color I was looking for.

After the paint dried I sanded the wood to distress the edges and expose some of the brown paint. Then using pieces of wood cut from a limb blown from one of our trees I attached the “stems” to my pumpkins. I used Beacons 3-in-1 and you will want to go around the edges as well to make sure they are secure.

While waiting for the stems to dry I cut my Fall letters from brown vinyl and placed them on the pumpkins.

To finish off the pumpkins I attached some fall leaves and raffia. I also followed Janet’s suggestion to tie floral wire around the stem and then I used a pencil to curl the ends.

 

So what do you think? I will share with you what my 16 year old said. I have my pumpkins in my kitchen and he so nicely asked me if they had candy in them because he thought they were bags I had decorated. We all got a good laugh out of it – I’m still trying to figure out if that was a complement or if he was just hungry. J

Remember the Burlap Table Runner I shared with you – it was the inspiration behind Audra’s table runner but she used linen and added beautiful rosettes. So depending on your décor this can give you a similar look using different fabric. Head on over to Reduce, Reuse, and Renewed for a full tutorial and it even includes a link to a banana bread recipe- yum!

Happy Crafting!

Tracey

Featured for Fall and Christmas

Hello everyone – I hope you are having a great weekend! I have some exciting news to share with you. Two of my projects have recently been featured in the bloggy world.

 

First is my recent burlap wreath that was featured by DIY Craft Projects. Peggy did a wonderful roundup of 50 fall wreath ideas. She found some beautiful wreaths so I encourage you to head on over to check them out.

Second is my monogram ornament that I shared during our Christmas in July that was featured by Wait Til Your Father Gets Home. Meredith did a roundup of 13 handmadeornaments that can get you inspired for those holiday gifts and ornament swaps.

Thank you for the feature ladies!

Tracey

Give Thanks

It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving is only a few days away. As we start to get in the holiday spirit I know I have so much to be thankful for – a wonderful loving and supportive family, healthy children and grandchildren, friends, a job I enjoy, my crafty blogging family, and being saved by the grace of God. This project is a great reminder of how much we have to be thankful for so this holiday season I hope you will all take time to Give Thanks.

This is a fun, easy and quick project. To start I painted the sides and back of my paper mache letters brown. After giving them time to dry I used Mod Podge to adhere my paper, cut around the edges with my exacto knife and sanded the edges to give the letters some texture and smooth my cut edges. I then used brown ink around all the edges.

To decorate my letters I did the following:

G – The paper I used already had a great design so I added a few leaves and burlap

I – I layered several flowers I already had in my stash then used double sided scallop tape and Martha Stewart Fire Opal Glitter. I also added the same glitter to the center of my brad using double sided glue dots.

V – I added a few leaves and burlap

E – Thanks is made using Tim Holtz grunge letters that I ran through my Cuttlebug with an embossing folder then inked them with brown ink. I also added a layered flower with a glitter brad.

That’s it! I added it to my Grandmother’s table with my glitter pumpkins and a vine pumpkin I purchased from Hobby Lobby last year.

Happy Crafting!

Tracey

Updated DIY & Projects Page

Hello everyone I am so excited to share that I have finally finished updating my DIY and Projects page. The previous page included a few pictures of previous projects with the link to the original post. I was not pleased with the layout of the page but it served its purpose until I could learn how to make it a little more organized.

I am still learning all the ins and outs of the behind the scenes maintenance  and writing code for my blog. I spent hours of trial and error trying to update the page so it would show you a picture of the project and then link back to the original post. After a few months and several frustrating attempts I finally figured it out then came gathering all the information that was needed to organize the page while ensuring that it functions properly. I also wanted a page that would help you find any previous projects you might be looking for so take a couple of minutes to browse the new page and let me know what you think.

You can click here to access the new page.

Happy Crafting!

Tracey

DIY: Burlap Wreath

 

Welcome to November everyone! It is so hard to believe it is November, Thanksgiving is only three weeks away, and before we know it Christmas will be here.

I needed a new wreath for fall that would get me through Thanksgiving and I have been eyeing all the wonderful burlap wreaths on Pinterest. When I purchased the burlap for my Table Runner I purchased extra to take a stab at creating a wreath.

For this project you will need a styrofoam wreath (I used a 12” wreath), burlap, and lots of pins.  

I also used a roll of burlap I had previously purchased to wrap my wreath but this step can be skipped if your wreath is hanging on a door and if you use enough burlap to cover the front.

Next comes the fun and messy part - cutting out 4” by 4” squares. To make this process a little quicker I cut a large strip that was 4” wide then used by rotary cutter to cut my squares.

Once all of your squares are cut then you start folding and pinning them onto your wreath. Jennifer at Oh My Owls has a great tutorial on how to fold your squares. The best way to ensure you have a full wreath is to pin the next square so that it covers the pin of the previous square. I had to cut additional squares as I went along so I do not know exactly how many squares I have but I did use over 100 pins. This is what it should look like when you are finished.

I wanted my wreath to reflect fall so I created some flowers using canvas, burlap, and muslin and added cranberry wood beads. I had purchased a leaf garland at the dollar store so I cut it into individual leaves, placed them on my wreath and added my flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To hang the wreath I attached a strip of burlap to the back of the wreath, created a bow from the roll of burlap and stitched it to the top of my burlap strip to finish off my wreath.

Now I just have a couple more fall projects to finish up then I will start on Christmas!

I link to these parties and

My Repurposed Life

 

Happy Crafting!

 

Tracey