So Much To Make: pumpkins

Friday, October 14, 2016

Home Tour: Fall and Halloween Decor

Happy Fall, Y'all!

I frequently get asked about my handmade fall decor, so I decided to share a few areas of my home and how the decorations came to be. I have a kid-friendly house, so nothing is fancy or expensive. I like decorating (especially handmade stuff), but I LOVE how excited my kids get when they see that I have added fun festivity to our home! It makes me smile, too. (:

MY SIDEBOARD

(pictured above), located in my dining room

Autumn Grasses. Purchased at JoAnn's, similar here and here.
BOO letters. I spray painted them with a warm white, then painted the rims gold. Find the letters here.
Chalkboard. Made using a second hand framed picture from Goodwill, using this tutorial.
Fabric Pumpkins. Handmade using this blog post.

DOOR WREATHS

Wreath form purchased at Joann's (similar here). After trying several kinds of forms, I now have a pretty strong opinion that the kind made of pressed, shaped straw wrapped in plastic is the most sturdy. Just my 2-cents.
Burlap and fabric flowers made using tutorial found here and here.
Feathers made from yarn and liquid starch. Tutorial found here.

FOYER

Floral pieces and Pumpkin from Joann's.
Thankful board: 1x4 wood, painted light brown, then sanded around edges to distress. Vinyl "thankful."
Sitting scarecrow: This was a hand-me-down from my mom. :)

DINING ROOM

Table: Tray and metallic balls from Pier One. Leaves from JoAnn's. Vintage lace table runner made according to this tutorial.
Mini mason jar floral arrangement: These are the Atlas Mason jars that Classico Pesto comes in. I always save them. They make excellent small drinking glasses for my kids, and they are adorable in decorating. I painted these with a warm white spray paint. Floral pieces are from JoAnn's.

FIREPLACE

Painting (of Colorado Rockies in Fall) available here.
Wool Ball Garland made using these.
Fall Feather Garland tutorial found here.
Letterboard is "The Poet" from Letterfolk.

Friday, September 26, 2014

Easy-Sew Pumpkins

I made these fun pumpkins last year (before I began this blog), but I decided I should share them anyway! I used a super tutorial found here on Positively Simple. Here a few little tips I learned while making these:

I found most my fabric on the discount table at JoAnn's. They had a bunch of decorator samples (about 16"x16") for $0.50 each. Score! So check there--I have seen those samples on sale often.
I played around with the pattern to get slightly different shaped pumpkins. On one pumpkin I made the teardrop shapes more wide, on another I made them more tall. I loved the simplicity of this design that allowed for tweaking here and there to get the shape you want.
Use needle nose pliers if you have trouble pulling the needle through the pumpkin center. I was frustrated until I figured out this little hack.
I skipped hot gluing the cinnamon stick. I tend to skip hot-glue whenever possible. I am usually disappointed with its durability in the long run. I liked the look of just the ribbon. (Obviously this is just my opinion. :))

I made two Dora pumpkins for my daughter to decorate her room with. She adores them!

I loved how the two-tone orange turned out on this one. Both of these fabrics were from the discounted samples swatches I found.

I did some simple embroidery on felt to make this leaf and stem. The stem is stuffed with a couple pieces of felt, then whip-stitched on the edge. I sewed them into the middle instead of hot-gluing.

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