Awesome Autumn Additions!

We had ourselves another fun little craft night for Fall Crafts. So I wanted to share all the great ideas with you all!

Diannah made this great witches boot. I love it. She paid so much attention to detail that really made this craft so fabulous! It is made out of pine. It is 4 separate wood pieces that she also routed to smooth off the edges giving the craft and overall chunky feel.

This spider on the star is super cute! And notice the ribbon is held on with a bead and knotted at the end. GREAT touch!

April gave us these cute tags! These dollar store sketetons are such a great addition to this vintage inspired tag. The great little details include the felt embellishment on the bottom of the tag and a key on the skeleton's arm! LOVE IT!

April also made this great BOO banner. Very simple, and VERY cute! It is just some scrap muslin fabric with a zig zag stitch with "BOO" stamped on them! A great finishing touch for any halloween decor!

Randi and Jeni made this great Trick or Treat banner! Jeni is our resident scrapbooker and her talents really came shining through on this craft. She always has a great attention to detail!

The banner is made from cardstock, scrapbook paper, ribbon, corrugated letters, and ribbon.

The little spiders added to random letters is such a fun detail!

Notice the ribbon that embellishes each of the pennants covering the scrapbook paper seam. The corregated letters are painted and then distressed. LOVE IT! And to protect the paper they laminated each of the pennents before they glued on the ribbon, letter and spiders. When all is said and done, punch 2 holes in the top and string with ribbon.

Traci made the lovely pumpkin flower arrangement. Pick your favorite fall flowers/folliage and arrange in a foam pumpkin. To do this glue in a floral foam block and arrange your flowers. Great way to soften up your home with fall colors!

Okay, April did go crazy this time around and also made us these fabric pumpkins. It is hard for a creative soul to sit still. And we are glad she shared that creativity with us! If you check back to earlier fall posts (click the fall post on the side bar) you will see her very detailed pumpkins as well. But these are great for a bench because your kids cannot hurt them. Puppies that's another story :) But I love them and they look perfect on my bench. They can really go anywhere.

Jill made this hanging leaf plaque. The leaves are very glittery and really add some bling to your house. Jill decoupaged the scrapbook paper on a routed, painted plaque and then glued on the leaves. The finished off hanging ribbon makes this a perfect decoration.

Teresa mad this great wall hanging. She also made this with pine and some misc. thinner wood for the embellishments. The berries and spanish moss area great addition to give the craft anadded touch. What a great fall craft!

Rachel made this Halloween Countdown that my kids love! It is so fun for them to keep track of the days until the great candy feast!!! :) This is made with the 4 X 4 blocks and 8" of 2 X 4. She then decoupaged on the different scrapbook papers and vinyl numbers/lettering. She got the craft idea from Poppy Seed Projects and ordered the kit. Awesome craft!! They have a great wesite that you can order crafts. Check it out!

All in all we had some great fall crafts this time around. Thanks ladies!!

Ode to Hobby Lobby!

(yes I am aware that I appear to be a little too excited in this picture, but I REALLY love Hobby Lobby!

And I got a great deal on these drawer knobs!)

I love Hobby Lobby! It is a little bit sentimental because they gave me my first job when I was 15 and thus released a beast of creativity! I have found what I needed there 98% of the time and I love the sales and prices. Just recently a friend of mine told me about their inspirational ideas on their website and wanted to share them with you too.! So I hope you find some inspiration as well.
Here is a fun little inspiration that they have on their website for fall! LOVE IT! Click Here to see their great fall ideas.

You can also check out their website to see other inspirational ideas by Clicking Here.

GREAT NEWS!! For all of you not fortunate enough to have a Hobby Lobby by you, you can now SHOP ONLINE!!! This is great! Check it out by Clicking Here.

Great Fall Decorating Ideas & Crafts

We have some cute ideas for fall decorating. Thank You to all of you who contributed your ideas.

Diannah Made these cute fabric pumpkins out of a circle of scrap fabric. She gathered the circle where the stump is. For the stump she used some fabric that she just sewed like a mini pillow case and tucked under the edges then she hand sewed on the top. For a finishing touch she used raffia and coated floral wire that she curled around a pencil.

She made hers pretty small, but you can do any size.

Diannah is an accomplished quilter and also did the pictures and wall quilt. If you are into quilting these are some great ideas!

Holly also had some cute fabric pumpkins on her blog. You can Click Here to see the instructions. (you'll love her cute little people too!)

Diannah also made these cute letter signs. The are so great for anything!

For these signs she used 1/2" MDF cut into 12" squares and used mod podge to glue on the trimmed down scrapbook paper. For the letters she enlarged a cute CK font that looks like pumpkins and traced out the letters and cut them out with her Scroll Saw After a light sanding to get the rough edges off she painted them and accented them with the black lines. I would use a painters pen or freehand with a brush and craft paint. (Sharpies tend to fade over time). To finish it off she used the

coated floral wire to make the curly Qs and then you can glue or nail on the letters.

Really Cute!

These are some fabulous pumpkins that April made. April is also an accomplished quilter and even has the sweet sewing machine that adds cute little touches like the embroidered leaves. Her pumpkins are more pieced together and have a lot more detail to them. I love how she added the bling, flowers, and misc. tassels to her pumpkins. They turned out so fabulous that she is even selling them now. Click Here to check out her etsy shop if you are interested in buying some.

Allison is the Fall Decorating Queen in my book. You can tell it is her favorite time of year to decorate. Many people pay her to come decorate their porches and house every year for fall. I appreciate her sharing some of her cute ideas with us on this blog to spread the creativity! If these next few pictures you can see what a great eye she has for arranging and the finishing touches.

The wagon is so fun and whimsical filled with Pumpkins, leaves and gourds.

One scarecrow is cute, but five is even cuter! (Notice she used an odd amount-that is the "odds" rule in decorating. You should always use odd numbers of what you are decorating with.) The hay and pumpkins, and leaves just look so perfect with this scarecrow family!

This display is perfectly placed just at the home's entry to greet the guests!

Many have these beautiful urns at their entry. Here a great example of how you can dress them up for any holiday. The leaf and berry pick are easy to dress this planter up.

Another great way to spruce up your entry at fall is with a pumpkin topiary.

For directions on how to make your own topiary Click Here.

Here are some more great ideas for decorations and crafts:

These letters are something Teresa made from some scrap 2 x 6 pine. After finding and tracing the font she liked she cut it out with her Scroll Saw. Finish off with a light sanding and some paint. The thicker wood makes the letters stand up with out falling down to easy.

This cute arrangement is accented with the vinyl letter sign that says "Autumn-Give of Yourself and You Will Reap a Great Harvest" and this rough post pumpkin. You can find rough posts at Lowes. With a 12" Miter Saw.you can cut it to various heights to make the pumpkins. The stem is just a thick branch cut to about 1 1/2" and accented with silk ivy, berries, and curly Qs. These make a great gift.

Halloween Crafts

Here are some really cute ideas sent in by Camille. They are really fun for Halloween.

The Halloween Countdown

This is a craft she did that turned out so cute.  They got the idea from Holiday Home Magazine on page 24. They changed it a little. It is magnetic and is a cookie sheet from the dollar store, painted and aged. The calendar grid and countdown header are glued on paper. Really fun! Each of the numbers are something different from around the house with a magnet glued on the back. 

Black Cat Head

The cat in the same picture she made out of paper mache with the instant stuff. It is much easier to work with and so much better. The only down side to the instant paper mache seems to be the extremely long drying time.

Happy Halloween Banner

The banner is just paper and then laminated and stapled onto ribbon.

Super Easy!

Spooky Letters

The letter are just wood with scrapbook paper Mod Podged on them.  You can find letters at your local craft store or cut your own out with some 1" wood (pine) and a scroll saw.  I pick a font that I like and then copy it on to the wood with carbon paper.  

Wooden Pumpkins

These pumpkins are essentially three pieces of wood that are cut in the shape of an arch.  Place all pieces together and trace out the mouth.  Cut out mouth hole.  Cut out two leaves and some thin eyebrows.  Paint all pieces accordingly.  Let dry.  Distress with a light sanding.  Antique pieces (I like to use watered down burnt umber-Delta Ceramcoat).  To assemble you can use some thin scrap wood behind the three pieces to secure together with staples or nails and some wood glue.  Glue on eyebrows and leaves with wood glue.  Paint on the eyes and nose.

Thank you Camille for all of these great ideas!

Build your own Scarecrow

Here are some cute scarecrow ideas:

This is from my friend Natalie-she is so talented and I ALWAYS love everything she does!  Isn't this guy great!  The wooden head is so cute and the whole ensemble is Fabulous!  I love the garden tools, corn stalks and boots!  Thanks for sharing!

The sign is a cute cabinet door that says "Howdy".  This guy's nose is a corn cob.  I love the gloves, the crow on the hat and the  uniqueness of the vest!  All the raffia adds a lot!

Such a great welcome to greet anyone who comes.  All of the flowers and pumpkins on the hay really fill up the space.

He has such a fun casual look with his leg up on the hay.  And the sunflowers in the coke bottle case is so creative.  Another great welcome for guests!

Allison, a friend of mine is the Queen of Fall Decorating, when she gets her scarecrow done I will put it on this post, so check back.

You've seen some great ideas so now here's the basic idea to build your own scarecrow.  There are a lot of variations that you can do to personalize your scarecrow, so just use this as your base idea.  

Find some old clothes in your closet or at a thrift store and you will need a 2 x 2 stake and some 1 x 2 wood for the arms.

Screw in the stick that would be the arm to the 2 x 2. Decide Height based upon if you want a standing or sitting scare crow. Add about 18"-24" to be stuck in the ground/hay.

Place the pants in the right place and stuffed with plastic bags. (If the scarecrow is standing place the 2 X 2 post through one of the legs.)

Pound the 2 x 2 main stick into the ground/hay. 

Put on the shirt and stuff it with plastic bags pinning the shirt to the pants. Add other clothing at this time if desired. (I braded some jute to make a tie belt.)

Put the head on (the head is a foam pumpkin that I cut a square hole in the bottom, the hole is slightly smaller than the 2 x 2 so it fits snug) 

Paint the face how you desire.  There are some good ideas on this post if you like any of those.

I just used a black painters pen and some buttons for the eyes.  Others have used acrylic craft paint.

Then I used a foam squash for the nose and secured with wire. 

After the head was on I used some raffia for some sweet chest hair.

With Jute I tied off the feet and arms. You can stick raffia in those too if you want.

Make or buy a cute sign to hang from his neck.

For the hair I tied some raffia together to fashion a wig.

Then I put on the hat -With a sturdy piece of wire I poked through the hat and the hair to secure on his head. Bend a piece of the wire 90 degrees to secure the hat

My finished fall porch this year.  My chrysanthemums haven't bloomed yet, but they will still be nothing like 4 years ago.  They were phenomenal!  Also after my kids pick out their pumpkins we put them all around the scarecrow to help fill the space.

**Tip- watch for end of the season sales for next year.  Every year you can add a little bit more!