November Seasonal Decorating
As I live in a one bedroom apartment, there's not much I can do for holiday decorating. I always see how people decorate their homes like a mantel or porch for holidays and seasons. I think it's beautiful and it gets my creative juices flowing! Up until a few weeks ago, I hadn't figured out anything for my home. I thought I would just wait until I got an actual home in a few years to do all that. But because of this yearlong project, I was inspired by something very simple I saw on Pinterest.
I think it actually came from an etsy shop so if you want to buy them, here's the link: https://www.etsy.com/listing/159125734/reversible-give-thanks-jingle-bells
There's a lot of scrap wood to be found at work here since our office is backed by our shipping warehouse. The guys back there give me scraps from time to time but there are these awesome pieces of wood they use for spacers between motors when they ship them. They're about 4.5 x 6.5". They're not smooth like if I were to buy them at a store or something, and if I had the right tools/supplies I could make them different sizes like the picture but I'm not going to stress over details like that :)
So what I ended up doing was using a shelf in my living room to designate as my "mantel". I have a window that I installed (or rather my handy dandy Dad installed for me!) a shelf in front of it the window. But it's pretty boring. (Sorry for the horrible lighting!! Apartments and their crappy lighting aren't the greatest settings for taking amazing pictures....)
I also have a small entrance into my apartment from the front door that I had decorated already.
But I took down the pictures and put up a key holder (that I bought from a craft store and painted it). I also had a shelf about 18 inches long that fit perfectly up there. I wanted to also decorate that depending on the holiday/season so it's the first thing people see when they walk in.
The only thing is...I don't have any holiday decorations! I don't buy or keep them because I haven't ever been able to decorate. I have a few Christmas things but I'm one of those people who wait until after Thanksgiving to start decorating. Plus I absolutely love fall! I love the colors, the smells, the weather, just almost everything about it. It's like an introduction to winter. I probably could have gone out and bought some fall decorations but the reason for this project is to make stuff right? And since I had seen the reversible letters, I knew I wanted to do those. I just had to think of some other little decorations. Here are the 3 major things I came up with based on things I found on Pinterest:
FIRST
The letters. I took the wood I got from work and tried to duplicate the pictures as much as I could.
I did do the other side but haven't taken any good pics yet. I'll put them up next month for when I do December. This was cute but needed a few more things.
SECOND
I found a really cute pumpkin project you can make from canning rings but I didn't have any, and I wasn't going to buy anything for these projects. I searched Pinterest and found my next project!
See instructions here or see below for my version: http://www.thoughtsfromalice.com/2014/09/diy-embellished-fabric-pumpkins-for-fall.html
I keep scrap fabric or old clothes around the house all the time! I knew I could easily do this without having to spend any money at all. It's pretty simple to make. You start out by cutting a circle. I used different sized plates or bowls to trace my circle. Below is a chips and dips bowl:
Then you hand sew stitches around the edge.
You'll see a sort of pocket start to form.
I had an old pillow that is too flat to use so I broke that open and used some of the stuffing for my pumpkin. Once it's stuffed, finish sewing the gap, and tie it off to seal it. You'll have a small little gap in the center but we'll fix this.
I got some little sticks to use as stems and hot glued them in the gap. Apply the hot glue to the stick and stuff it in. I also have a collection of buttons and scraps of ribbons around the house. So I decorated the pumpkins like she did in the original blog. I guess mine don't look chic like hers but I think they look cute and they look like "me" so I love them, and that's all that matters!
I tried placing them on the shelf with the sign but it just didn't look right.... It was cute but I knew it needed one more thing :)
THIRD
This project was done in multiple steps and gathered from two different pins i saw. I saw this one first:
I thought they were so beautiful!!! After church one Sunday, I went traipsing around barefoot in the church yard to pick up the acorns. I took a few pics and had some fun with a photo editing app :)
The original instructions had you bake the acorns so they'll dry out but I washed and dried them. I used acrylic paints in fall colors and a teal/aqua to give some contrast. I put them in two clear vases I had to use for the next step.
I got the inspiration from this picture I saw on Pinterest:
Among some of the other beautiful things going on here, I really like the tree branches. From what I could tell, it was just colorful paper in the shape of leaves. I have tons of scrapbook paper and sticks are not that hard to come by around here haha
So I cut leaf shapes from scrapbook paper and glued two pieces together to make them double sided. Then I hot glued them onto the branches I found, and stuck a few inside each jar.
I put the other two pumpkins on the mini shelf. I also like the idea of a fall sign or something but since my shelf here already has text, I wanted to put a framed something on the mini shelf. I saw a design on Pinterest that I liked and made my own to print out.
I had a gold frame already so this plus the frame equals this:
Look, I'm not going to lie.....I freakin' love this!!!!! I've had it up for about two weeks now and it's so cute every time I come in the door!! And this all cost me no money at all!!! Ok well technically, I had to buy, at some point, all the supplies like the paint and glue but I figure people who crafts usually have something around the house anyway. The other point I guess I'm trying to make in all this, is that we see all these beautiful things on Pinterest, and we think," Oh that's pretty, but I would never be able to do that or I would never have enough money" or whatever lame excuse we come up with. So maybe arts and crafts aren't your thing. I saw a quote that basically said to find out what your passion is and there your passion will be. Find out what you are passionate about!!!
Good luck and hope you enjoyed the project :)
There's a lot of scrap wood to be found at work here since our office is backed by our shipping warehouse. The guys back there give me scraps from time to time but there are these awesome pieces of wood they use for spacers between motors when they ship them. They're about 4.5 x 6.5". They're not smooth like if I were to buy them at a store or something, and if I had the right tools/supplies I could make them different sizes like the picture but I'm not going to stress over details like that :)
So what I ended up doing was using a shelf in my living room to designate as my "mantel". I have a window that I installed (or rather my handy dandy Dad installed for me!) a shelf in front of it the window. But it's pretty boring. (Sorry for the horrible lighting!! Apartments and their crappy lighting aren't the greatest settings for taking amazing pictures....)
I also have a small entrance into my apartment from the front door that I had decorated already.
The only thing is...I don't have any holiday decorations! I don't buy or keep them because I haven't ever been able to decorate. I have a few Christmas things but I'm one of those people who wait until after Thanksgiving to start decorating. Plus I absolutely love fall! I love the colors, the smells, the weather, just almost everything about it. It's like an introduction to winter. I probably could have gone out and bought some fall decorations but the reason for this project is to make stuff right? And since I had seen the reversible letters, I knew I wanted to do those. I just had to think of some other little decorations. Here are the 3 major things I came up with based on things I found on Pinterest:
FIRST
The letters. I took the wood I got from work and tried to duplicate the pictures as much as I could.
SECOND
I found a really cute pumpkin project you can make from canning rings but I didn't have any, and I wasn't going to buy anything for these projects. I searched Pinterest and found my next project!
I keep scrap fabric or old clothes around the house all the time! I knew I could easily do this without having to spend any money at all. It's pretty simple to make. You start out by cutting a circle. I used different sized plates or bowls to trace my circle. Below is a chips and dips bowl:
Then you hand sew stitches around the edge.
You want to leave a small gap open at the end. As you pull the thread, it gathers up around the edges.
You'll see a sort of pocket start to form.
I had an old pillow that is too flat to use so I broke that open and used some of the stuffing for my pumpkin. Once it's stuffed, finish sewing the gap, and tie it off to seal it. You'll have a small little gap in the center but we'll fix this.
I got some little sticks to use as stems and hot glued them in the gap. Apply the hot glue to the stick and stuff it in. I also have a collection of buttons and scraps of ribbons around the house. So I decorated the pumpkins like she did in the original blog. I guess mine don't look chic like hers but I think they look cute and they look like "me" so I love them, and that's all that matters!
I tried placing them on the shelf with the sign but it just didn't look right.... It was cute but I knew it needed one more thing :)
THIRD
This project was done in multiple steps and gathered from two different pins i saw. I saw this one first:
I thought they were so beautiful!!! After church one Sunday, I went traipsing around barefoot in the church yard to pick up the acorns. I took a few pics and had some fun with a photo editing app :)
The original instructions had you bake the acorns so they'll dry out but I washed and dried them. I used acrylic paints in fall colors and a teal/aqua to give some contrast. I put them in two clear vases I had to use for the next step.
I got the inspiration from this picture I saw on Pinterest:
Among some of the other beautiful things going on here, I really like the tree branches. From what I could tell, it was just colorful paper in the shape of leaves. I have tons of scrapbook paper and sticks are not that hard to come by around here haha
So I cut leaf shapes from scrapbook paper and glued two pieces together to make them double sided. Then I hot glued them onto the branches I found, and stuck a few inside each jar.
Look, I'm not going to lie.....I freakin' love this!!!!! I've had it up for about two weeks now and it's so cute every time I come in the door!! And this all cost me no money at all!!! Ok well technically, I had to buy, at some point, all the supplies like the paint and glue but I figure people who crafts usually have something around the house anyway. The other point I guess I'm trying to make in all this, is that we see all these beautiful things on Pinterest, and we think," Oh that's pretty, but I would never be able to do that or I would never have enough money" or whatever lame excuse we come up with. So maybe arts and crafts aren't your thing. I saw a quote that basically said to find out what your passion is and there your passion will be. Find out what you are passionate about!!!
Good luck and hope you enjoyed the project :)
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