Fairytales Do Come True...Guest Posting at Mod Podge Rocks

My dear readers, if you're a reader of my blog you know that next to chocolate the thing I love most is Mod Podge. Suffice it to say I am over the moon to be guest posting at the epicenter of all things Mod Podge: Mod Podge Rocks!! Sharing these altered candles featuring my Fall obsession, cornhusks. 

Thank you Amy for having me! 

Thanksgiving 2014 Banner: Cornhusks are Back!

This week's link party is still going strong here so please link up! 

Sharing my Thanksgiving mantel for this year. You might recall my Cornhusk Wreath shared here.  I had some cornhusks left over and couldn't wait to play with them some more. 

Life is always challenging. This year has been no exception. Yet despite challenges, we have much to be thankful for. So it seemed an obvious choice for a banner.  The banner was pretty simple. I cut the letters THANKFUL from metallic brown paper using my Cricut ( Expression...not Explore...trying to win one of those or if anyone wants to hook me up with the Cricut people!) and matted as shown on cream and gold card stock . 

I have a container full of punches I haven't used in a while and found this one that looks like acorns so punched the bottom corners of the cream cardstock. Used gold glitter washi tape to edge the top of each panel. 

I decided to make some cornhusk leaves and  feathers. Feathers are really popular right now and they fit right in with my idea.  

I cut leaf / feather shapes from cornhusks, coated them with Mod Podge to make them less brittle and edged the tips with gold glitter paint. I used Martha Stewart gold. 

I attached my leaves / feathers to the bottom of each letter using my glue gun and added a punched maple leaf to a couple of the  letters 

For some of the letters I did leaves. For others I did feathers. Same shape as the leaves but I notched the edges and cut some additional feathers from kraft cardstock. 

I'm happy with the mix of rustic and glitz. I also had fun re-mixing pieces from prior years.  Some of my favorite pieces from my mantel this year: 

Script Tissue Paper Pumpkin from 2012 and turkeys I found at JoAnn's for 75% off a few years ago and painted. 

Dollar Tree glass candles ( wrapped in Dollar Tree tissue paper) that I did for New Year's 2014 and ended up keeping out all year. More JoAnn's turkeys. My white pumpkins from Halloween are still holding on. Just a little longer little guys. 

And this year's Cornhusk Wreath

Less than two weeks to T-Day! 

Sharing At: 

BFF Open House Link Party #184

T-Day minus exactly two weeks people! TWO WEEKS. And then you know what happens right? Full speed til Hanukkah and Christmas. And not judging anyone because I'm pinning tons of Christmas ideas but I am a stickler about no Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving.

Lots of great ideas at last week's party. Here are just a few!

Heather from Woods of Bell Trees some great ideas on transitional decorating perfect for this time of year between holidays. Love the pumpkins and pinecones that work thru Thanksgiving and then the other pieces that go into Christmas. 

The Gracious Wife has a lovely roundup of Thanksgiving table decor and centerpieces. 

I am in serious love with these pinecone cookies from Ooh La Lovely. 

Make a platter of  pinecone cookies and these adorable acorn cookies from momdotcom using mini Nutter Butters and Hersheys kisses. Perfect for your Thanksgiving dessert table. 

Now onto this week's party!

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

Dollar Tree Altered Pumpkin Candleholders

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

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:

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.

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.

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

Now on to the candleholders.

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

Hot glue charms to center:

Place candleholders inside pumpkin base.

Sharing At:
The Girl Creative

BFF Open House Link Party #183

Happy Friday Eve once again! Can you believe Halloween was already a week ago? I can't. Before you know it Thanksgiving will be here. Time is not slowing down. 

Here are some ideas from last week's party perfect for entertaining, decorating and gift giving. 

Do you love strolling through Restoration Hardware or flipping through their catalog? Do you find yourself oohing and ahhhing and saying "no way" at the prices? Rachel from Holy Craft did and knocked off a $550 piece from RH for next to nothing. 

Seeing "caramel apple" and "nachos" in the same sentence is not something I would expect to see. But Bonnie from The Pin Junkie managed to combine them into this dessert that is a must try! Plus there is just no easy way to eat a whole caramel apple is there? 

Teri from A Creative Princess has a simple but perfect idea for fall decorating using clay pots. You could do smaller versions for a centerpiece or make a few of these as gifts. 

I'm going to let Sharon from Her Organized Chaos explain this week's chocolate feature in her own words: Must I really explain this cheesecake? You can just imagine the taste with the name.Oh Sharon, yes I can...yes I can!

Now on to this week's party! 

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

Lazy Frame Makeover and Thanksgiving Printable

This quick frame makeover was the laziest project in the history of lazy projects. It took longer to make the printable than update the frame.  I love neutrals and black and white in case you can’t tell. I did try for a few years to do the color thing and I LOVE nature's colors this time of year , especially here in the PNW where the leaves are brilliant right now. But I went back to my comfort zone this Thanksgiving.

See ….proof! I had a metallic orange frame that’s been part of my décor the past few years. It just wasn’t going to go with what I had in mind for my mantel this year. I thought about painting the frame which wouldn’t have been that hard, but I was tired and I did mention this was a lazy project right?  Thank goodness for self adhesive glitter tape!

For this project you will need:

• Simple frame
• Glitter tape ( I used Recollections from Michaels)
• Printable

I dis-assembled things, cleaned the glass, and said goodbye to the previous printable. Then I just went around the edges of the frame with my (black)  glitter tape. This does not require advanced crafting skills. This does not require ANY crafting skills.

Then I printed out the printable I made in PicMonkey. I couldn’t decide on a font so I made three versions.

and the one I printed out

Oh did I mention I'm sharing them? Click on to bring to full res, right click to save as. 

Confession. I goofed on my sizing when I printed it but waste not want not. Instead of reprinting, I just mounted it onto some gold cardstock that was the right size for the mat. Done and done!

Thanksgiving: Cornhusk Wreath

I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

Full speed on to Thanksgiving which often gets overlooked in the preparation for Christmas. Well not in this house! College Boy picked up on Thanksgiving being overlooked pretty early on so ever since then I have made sure to decorate for it at least as much as I do for Halloween. This year is extra special because CB will be home for Thanksgiving for the first time in 2 years!!! Yes I am triple exclamation point excited.

I remember seeing cornhusk wreaths in magazines and on Pinterest last year and knew I wanted to try one this year.

For this project you will need:

• Cornhusks ( I am not Martha enough to have saved and dried my own from Summer corn on the cob…got mine at the grocery store by the Mexican spices. $3.99)
• Wreath form ( Dollar Tree)
• Glue Gun
• Glue Sticks
• Kraft paper or brown bag

I decided just in case I wasn’t even about placing my corn husks ( and didn’t want any of the green from the wreath form showing through) I’d cover the wreath form with some paper. I used painter’s masking paper but you could use kraft paper, brown bags etc.

Some tutorials advise moistening the cornhusks to make them easier to work with but I just used them dry. Some split a bit but I didn't mind. They were pretty wide so I tore each husk into halves or thirds depending on the original size. I ended up with a bunch of scraps. More on that later.

I wrapped the wide side of my husks under the wreath and glued them around the form with the pointy ends sticking out. Once one layer was complete I added another couple of layers slightly offset each time so the husks aren’t laying directly on top of each other.

Remember the scraps? These were the odd bits that I pulled off to make each of my sections about the same size. I gathered a handful of these together , stapling at the bottom and made enough of these little bundles to tuck around the wreath. I found it easiest to tear from the wide side just FYI.

I was actually happy with the wreath before I added these but once I did, I was really happy because it gave the wreath a more natural wild look.

I’m sure this would be fine outdoors ( corn grows outside right?) but I have mine resting on an over sized candlestick that sits on my mantle. I  only used about half the bag of husks so have some other ideas in my head that you may see later!

Sharing At: 

Time To Sparkle