Showing posts with label Fall Decor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fall Decor. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

Fall Decor: Make Fall Acorns and Pinecones from Plastic Easter Eggs

 


While Halloween hasn't even arrived yet, I think my house is sufficiently haunted so I've started in on some Fall decorations for November. I'm so excited about how these came out and I hope you like them! 

I've always loved acorns for no reason that I can put my finger on. I just think they scream Fall. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, pinecones were literally everywhere. Now living in the desert, I don't have either so I did what Makers do and made my own versions! 

Supplies: 
  • Plastic Easter Eggs (had some in my craft stash)
  • Acrylic Paints ( I used Craftsmart Dark Brown and Martha Stewart Rust Metallic)
  • Scrapbook Paper ( Pinecones)
  • Jute Cord
  • Coordinating Sequins (I love the Kids Craft section at Michaels) 
  • Copper Beads
  • Glue Gun and Hot Glue 
  • Aleene's Turbo Tacky Glue


I wasn't sure how well the paint was going to stick to the plastic so I coated a couple with Mod Podge to increase the adhesion and then I decided to try directly on the egg which worked fine. It was easier to open the eggs to paint vs paint them whole. 



I used a bamboo skewer to help hold the eggs in place as I painted. I started with a coat of the plain brown paint and then went over that with a couple of coats of the metallic rust. I made some "egg holders" from scraps of paper glued together in a circle. 


I'm a "figure it out as I go along" person so initially I didn't think I needed to paint the tops of the eggs since they would be covered with sequins but after I could still see a little of the color when I did the first one, I decided to do that w/ the rest. 

Once your egg is completely painted ( you can see here I reached my decision to paint the tops after I'd already added the twine to one, so it's shown here w/out paint) then add a drop of hot glue on the seam, wrap around the egg as shown and when satisfied, glue then trim the end. 


For the acorn stems, I just folded some of the jute twine over itself 2 or three times and sealed the ends w/ a dab of hot glue and then glued to the middle of the top of the egg. Then, using the Tacky Glue, start gluing the sequins around the egg, starting at the top edge of the twine. Work up to the top and voila!



I had some copper beads in my stash so I added on sequin to the bottom along with one copper bead. 

Pinecones:
For the pinecones you will need an oval craft punch or a digital cutting machine. I used my Cricut Explore 2 and created an oval shape in Design Space for my pine cone parts. 


I had some silver polka dot foiled kraft papers in my stash and I liked the way I thought they'd look with the acorns so to coordinate, I used silver sequins around the small end of the egg. Starting around the sequins, start gluing the ovals around the egg. I did use the hot glue for this. Continue until you get to the top of the egg, slightly offsetting each row of petals. Once you get to the other end, decide if you want them more open or closed and glue the petals down accordingly. 





I hope you've found some inspiration! 



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Tuesday, November 14, 2017

My First Heat Transfer Project: Fall Pillow



The first thing I'll say is, if you've wanted to try heat transfer vinyl and been intimidated so keep putting it off because you think it's too complicated ....DON'T. Because that was me, I used it for the first time and was kicking myself saying "Why didn't I do this sooner?"

There's no logic behind why I thought that, just did. But I finally decided to go for it and it's a game changer. I decided to start with something simple: a pillow. I also decided to go w/ a design that didn't matter if I messed up the mirroring because I kept reading how key that is to using HTV. 

Supplies: 
  • Fabric ( I used flannel which was very receptive to the vinyl)
  • HTV ( I used Siser Easy Weed which really was easy)
  • Fiberfill to stuff pillow
  • Thread
  • Image to transfer ( mine is from the Silhouette Online Store)
  • Cutting machine ( I used my Cameo 3)
  • Iron
  • Pressing cloth



I'm not going to describe pillow construction. My sewing skills extend to four straight lines. 

Lessons learned on HTV Vinyl: 
  • The front side goes down. When you put your vinyl on your cutting mat, you're cutting from the underside of the vinyl. It took me one attempt to figure this out. HTV comes with a clear plastic liner, its own transfer tape in a way which is the side you want to touch your cutting mat. 


See how the matte side is "up"? That's what you want. The shiny side is what will go on your project and this is a shot during the weeding process. About that. I HATE WEEDING. If you're not a vinyl user, weeding is removing the parts of the vinyl you don't need to reveal the image. This stuff just pulled away so easily! 



This is a (bad) picture of the front / shiny side that will go on your project. Once your project is weeded, it's already on the equivalent of the transfer tape so it's super easy to lay down on your material. 



The heat process is more press than iron.
  • When applying your iron, it's  more of a press and pick up than slide your iron around. Press, hold, pick up, move to next session. Now, I did do some slight gliding but the main process is press and lift. This is why you'll see serious HTV people use a heat press which is like a vinyl panini maker.  

Don't Make This Mistake! 

  • You will use a pressing cloth on top of the plastic carrier sheet when applying heat. This is good. What's not good is deciding to use said cloth directly on top of the vinyl when you're just trying to make extra sure that you've applied enough heat. This will result in the weave of your pressing cloth ( mine was a scrap of a flour sack towel) transferring to your vinyl. Now as it turned out this was OK w/ my project because the texture looked kinda cool but in general, if you don't want this, keep the plastic from the vinyl between the surface of your project and your pressing cloth! 



Once my image was applied, I went about construction my pillow. And voila!




Some other tips: 
  • If you're using words or letters, you will need to "mirror" (flip) your project before you cut it or your letters will be backwards when you apply. I chose this image because it didn't matter if I messed that up since it was the same either way. As it turned out, the Cameo 3 asks you if you want to do this because you will have selected the HTV material in your cut settings. 
  • If you're not using a full sheet of vinyl, you need to pay attention to which side of the mat you put your vinyl on, again because of the mirroring. So if you place a smaller than 12x12 piece on your mat on the left side, choose mirror, the Cameo at any rate will actually cut from the right side of your mat so put your vinyl on the right side of the mat! 

I'm happy with my first attempt and have a new addition to my Thanksgiving decor. 

Fall Mantel


Side Table. Found these pumpkin signs last year 90% off after Halloween. Painted and applied glitter vinyl. Turkeys were 75% off at JoAnn one year. Painted w/ glitter paint.
Marc Roberts Harvest Fairy. I have a collection of Christmas fairies but found this Fall themed one on sale one year.





Monday, October 2, 2017

Hello October! Fabric Pumpkins , Leather Leaves



Hard to believe it's October already yet here it is. Even though I'm not a Pumpkin Spice fan, I do love to decorate with pumpkins from Halloween through Thanksgiving. I've had fabric pumpkins on my to make list and finally made some! 

October Lettering Doodle

Everything's new when it's the first time you do it right? My twist on these was to add leather leaves. 

Supplies: 
  • Fabric of choice: I used my never ending fabric dropcloth from the HW store, and some black and white swirl fabric from my stash
  • Embroidery thread and needle
  • Fiberfill
  • Leather Scraps
  • Glue gun and glue sticks
  • Jute Twine and Cotton Cord
  • Charms
  • Twigs
For the dropcloth pumpkins, I used a standard size dinner plate as my template. For the black and white pumpkin, I used a charger.


Trace your pattern and cut out your fabric:


Using embroidery thread, do a loose running stitch around the edge of your fabric, and then pull to gather together. 


I didn't care about the contrast in thread color because I knew I'd be covering up any exposed stitching. You'll have a little sac ( which reminded my of my favorite Taiwanese dumplings). 


Stuff your dumpling, I mean pumpkin, with fiber fill until you are happy with the size etc. I kind of rolled mine around to make sure the fiberfill was even. Then pull you stitching tight and tie off. 


I chose to do this step before adding my stem but I suppose you could add the stem and then do this. For the stems, I used a cedar branch I'd cut during the Summer that was now thoroughly dried. 


Leather Scraps

A while ago, for no specific reason, I bought a bag of leather scraps at Michaels or JoAnns. Now I knew the reason! I grabbed some coordinating colors and cut leaf shapes from them. 



I glued in the stem and attached the leaves and then used twine to wrap around the bottom of the stem and cover up my glue schlubs. I then added some ribbon and charms from my stash to finish. 



I used the same process for the black and white fabric pumpkin, only instead of wrapping the stem with twine, I used cotton cord and maple leaf charms insttead of hearts. 




Sunday, August 27, 2017

Printable: Fall In Love With Fall




Who's ready for Fall besides me? Summer is OK but my favorite time of year is Fall, or Autumn if you prefer. The leaves changing color. The crispness in the air. Boots and sweaters. Bring it! The calendar is not quite there but I'm getting ready so I made a Fall printable using graphics from designbundles.net.   





It's sized 8x10. Click on the image to bring it to full resolution. PC Users Right Click to Save As. 

Keeping the folks in the path of Harvey in my thoughts. 


Sunday, November 9, 2014

Dollar Tree Altered Pumpkin Candleholders

Dollar Tree Thanksgiving Candle Holders

I picked up a couple of extra foam pumpkins at the Dollar Tree during Halloween shopping. Like most projects I do, I knew I’d do something with them but not exactly what. Since the tag said they were carvable, I thought maybe I could use them as the base to hold glass candleholders , also from Dollar Tree. No clue why this thought came to me...just did.

For this project you will need:
  • Dollar Tree ( or other carvable foam pumpkins)
  • Glass candleholders (Dollar Tree)
  • Craft paint
  • XActo knife
  • Twine
  • Charms
  • Hot glue gun
  • Paper Roses
Dollar Tree Pumpkin

Using the bottom of the glass candleholder as a guide, I traced a circle around the top of the pumpkin and cut out the top with an Xacto knife:

Carved Dollar Tree Pumpkin

Yay…no pumpkin guts to deal with. Inside the rim looked a little rough so I covered it with some Mod Podge and tissue paper. It doesn’t really show in the finished project but I wanted to be safe  just in case.

Painted Dollar Tree Pumpkins

Paint pumpkins with a couple coats of craft paint (I used taupe).

Tip:  use push pins to make it easy to pick them up and hold while painting.

When the base color is dry, dry brush with white. The bumpy texture of the pumpkin really shows through with the dry brushing.

Dollar Tree Pumpkin Makeover

Glue paper roses around the top of the pumpkin (you can see the tissue paper I used to rim the inside of the pumpkin) .

Dollar Tree Makeover 1

Now on to the candleholders.

Dollar Tree Vase Makeover

Wrap the twine around the top of the candleholder and tack in place using hot glue.
Twine Wrapped Vase

Hot glue charms to center:

Oak Leaf Charm Vase

Place candleholders inside pumpkin base.

Dollar Tree Thanksgiving Candle Holders

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