53 Days

Hello and Happy Halloween! Hope you had a wonderful day and evening! :) We had a great time chasing a very excited pirate around the neighborhood. And I ate a LOT of food. I mean. Lots.

Well, it’s about that time folks. It’s now November…uhhh, well it will be when most of you read this…so I’m allowed to say the “Christmas” word. I’ve actually been talking and thinking about it for a good month now, but November 1st gives me the go ahead to hide it no longer!

I’m freeeee!!

I’m a Christmas fareeek, so bear with me. And yes, I know a little holiday called Thanksgiving comes first, but I’m thankful every day, so I don’t get as excited about that one. :)

This time of year I’m always thinking about the countdown -- I love checking out all of the advent ideas out there. Because many of us love to DIY, I thought I’d share a few of my favorites (old and new) now so you’ll have plenty of time to get crafty. (OR pull out the bank card and order one – I feel ya.)

Click the pics to see more about each one!

Pottery Barn never fails with the countdowns – this snowman advent is too cute!:

The price is not…but there’s gotta be some way to DIY this! I just can’t think of one right this second. My mind is a mush of Halloween candy. :)

This one is adorable and could be knocked off for sure:

Felt cut into stockings and glued on – love it!

This is an oldie but goodie, and SO doable. I searched for mini buckets last year to do this one and couldn’t find what I wanted (for cheap). I even asked the folks at Logan’s Roadhouse and they wouldn’t sell me some – boo!:

Anyone seen mini buckets at a good price?

I love this advent pillow at Ballard Designs:

And I know some of you crafty chicks could pull this one off! I on the other hand, am still working on the sewing a straight line thing.

I found this one at Meijer the other day:

It’s just a round metal sheet and there’s a magnetic glass piece that goes over the numbers and magnifies them. I think it was $10? Super cute!

I’m always blown away with the handmade ideas I see every year. I used cardboard boxes, paper and stickers from the craft store to make these years ago:

They have held up great! I used to fill each one with small toys or treats, but we need more itty bitty toys in this house like we need a poke in the eye.

So I loved these simple activity cards with holiday themes instead:

Sooo doing this! Along with a few treats and toys…just a few. ;)

I’ve found a few more ideas on Pinterest over the past few weeks – love these little felt envelopes!:

Oh, they are too precious!

These Christmas trees are something different, and would be SO easy (and cheap!):

Wouldn’t they be fun across a mantel, in all different sizes? They’d have to be up high in this house – little hands wouldn’t be able to resist peeking underneath. :)

This one is simple and lovely:

Just clothes pins glued to a board, decorated with a bit of ribbon. Clip the little treats up each day – too sweet! I may have to try this one.

But my favorite yet is this idea:

OH my…the cuteness!! This one WILL happen at our house. Just adorable. And it doesn’t involve treats or presents…just one-on-one crafting time with the kiddos for a few minutes a day. LOVE.

Do you have a favorite advent or Christmas countdown tradition? I’d love to hear! If you’ve blogged about about one, feel free to leave a link in your comment. And I promise not to mention the C-word again for at least 24 hours.

:)

Before & After Party: Ghosts in the Trees!

Well hello! I hope you had a wonderful weekend! I got SO much done around here. DIY-wise anyway. You can’t walk through the house without stepping on a toy or a piece of clothing – but the projects went very well! ;)

It’s time for the October Before and After Party, and I’m also linking this up to Kate’s fall craft party tomorrow! Linking a party up to a party --  not sure that’s even allowed.

Breaking the law! Breaking the law! (90’s flashback anyone?) ;)

Anyway, I’ve got a super quick, super cheap, SUPER FUN Halloween project for you today – it’s adorable. And the kids will LOVE it.

I had this idea last Christmas, and I doubt I’m the first to come up with it. But, really, am I ever? I doubt it. Too much awesomeness out there.

I bought a package of small Dollar Tree ornaments last year just for this project, and the rest of the stuff I had on hand:

I used some scraps of batting (I knew they would come in handy someday!), and some muslin. If you don’t have these – you can easily skip the batting, and the muslin is SO cheap.

I just wrapped a piece of batting around the ornament, and made a hole so the top could stick out. Then I covered that with the muslin:

Later I snipped a hole in the muslin as well, so I could hang them.

Like I said, the batting is not necessary – I just thought it would make the ghosts a little more chunky chunky. (Which is never a bad thing.)

I used some Halloween ribbon I had to tie a “neck” around the ghost:

I ran out of that after the first few, so I just used some twine for the rest.

Then…you take a cutie patootie I could just squish him Bub and have him draw faces on them:

So cute I could squish them faces!:

The faces were so precious, I just couldn’t bear to leave them outside in case it rained. So these stayed in, and we made more (without faces) for outside.

I taught the Bub how to use my camera the other day, and now I have to fight him for it every time I bring it out. (GREAT idea, really. Gah.)

He’s caught some surprisingly great photos though!:

 

We hung them with twine throughout the trees:

We loved them so much, I dug a few more little ornaments out of the Christmas bins to make a few more. :) They hold up great to the weather too – we’ve had a ton of rain and they are doing great.

They are SO CUTE swaying in the wind. They make me smile so BIG when we drive up to the house.

I’m thinking about adding some felt faces to them, or maybe some googley eyes. Wouldn’t that be adorable?

So here’s my (FREE to me!) Halloween/fall craft before and after! From cheapy Christmas ornaments:

To cutie friendly ghosts swinging in the trees:

I can’t wait to see what you’ve been up to! Any fall goodness this month? And don’t forget the craft party at Kate’s place on Tuesday!

If you would, please link this post to the post you are linking up – I really appreciate it! You can copy and paste this button in as well if you’d like!:

Paper Fall Wreath

Well hello!! Thanks so much for all the wonderful comments on our deck and patio over the past week or so. We are just pinching ourselves – everything turned out so beautifully and we couldn’t be happier.

I am so not worthy of the awesomeness. :)

The next party on our Autumn Linky list is the Door Decor shindig over at Rhoda’s!

I had an idea for a couple DIY fall wreaths this year, and the last one turned out to be a total pain in my booty. I thought the second one would go much faster.

Well. It was. Kinda. ;)

No really, it was much faster. It was still time consuming, but the fact that it cost less than $5 made it totally worth it.

Can I get a WHOO?!

I didn’t have a form for this wreath, so I improvised. I saw a little trick on Pinterest (sorry, I don’t think I pinned it so I don’t have the source) where someone took a pool noodle and taped it together:

 

It worked like a CHARM. In the photo I saw, they cut the noodle at an angle at both ends and then taped it together, but I just put end to end and taped it with duct tape.

Cost = FREE. ;)

And if you don’t have one, they cost about a buck at the dollar store (although I’m not sure if there’s any left right now).

I found some fun fallish fabric at Hob Lob a few weeks ago, and just got a bit of it. I cut it into strips:

And wrapped it around, just to give it a pretty backdrop:

Cause a blue pool noodle doesn’t exactly scream FALL. :)

Then I grabbed my hole punches:

And my scrapbook paper (also from Hob Lob, half off!), an started punching.

Punch punch punch:

I used red, yellow, orange and brown – all warm luscious fall colors of course!

Using the end of a pencil, I wrapped each cut out around the eraser end:

Then dabbed the back with hot glue and stuck them on everywhere.

I LOVE it:

IT’S SO FLUFFY!!!!!

You’ll notice that the density changes throughout the wreath. ;) I started on top and made them really tight next to each other. I realized very quickly it way going to take EONS if I kept that up, so I started spreading them out a bit more.

Then half way in I realized using more of the larger circles and less of the smaller ones meant it would go even faster, so you can see how I used more of the large ones on the right.

Whatever.

It adds interest and dimension. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

I took a few hours total, most of which were spent sitting in front of the TV, so I’m not complaining. If you used bigger circles it would go even faster!

You can see here that I didn’t do the sides – that’s why I wrapped it:

Now, our porch is covered and the front door gets NO rain – so keep that in mind if you try something similar.  Obviously this wouldn’t stand up to the elements. I think this would look AWESOME over our mantel as well!

I’m not sure which what decor will go on the door for the rest of the season – it could be my felt wreath:

Or my beauty from last year – the dollar store wreath:

I love my Southern Living at Home container stuffed with fall fillers:

And here’s a couple more ideas from a couple years ago:

So many choices!

I am leaning toward my square wreath or the paper one, just because of their beautiful fall colors:

I can’t wait to show you the porch next week at my party! I have a few changes in store. Buwahahahaaaaa!! Not sure why I just buwaha’ed you – but I’m pretty excited. ;)

Can’t wait to see your fall door ideas at Rhoda’s place tomorrow!

Candy Corn Love

Well HEY!

First of all, thank you for the lovely comments on our deck! You all are the sweetest!! We are just so pleased with how it turned out.

Sooo, last week I was trying to get some crafty mojo going up in here. (That would be up in hea if you’re hip. I’m not.) I had a GREAT Halloween craft in mind, and I got all the way to the end…and it was just, well.

Wrong. :)

Since I had all the supplies for it, I wanted to reuse them somehow. So I took it all apart and I have a plan in mind for all the parts. (And yes, I’ll show you the unfortunate craft soon.)

I had three Styrofoam cones to reuse, and after a few days, I finally came up with an idea. I got some yellow, orange and white yarn at Wally World and started wrapping, and wrapping:

(The black on the cone is part of the unfortunate craft. Please ignore. Not needed.)

I didn’t use any glue – just wrapped. And wrapped. ;)

You see where I’m going with the yellow, orange and white – especially if you read the title of this post. I’m not so good at the teasers.

I ended up with some big yarny candy (I almost wrote carny – that would be a whole different craft!) corns!:

They are too cauuuute! And WAY better than the original craft. Believe you me.

They were so easy it was just silly – just time consuming. But because I just wrapped (and wrapped) willy nilly, it was a great project to do while sitting in front of the tube watching the new fall shows.

I just tucked the end of each strand into the back of the cone. Easy peasy! I think they’d be a fun craft for kids – maybe with big chunky yarn?

So. cute.

Next up, working with the actual candy corn. I’ve seen candy corn wreaths for a while now and finally tried my own. Again, ridiculous easy.

I started with a dollar store wreath and a bag of candy corn:

I wanted to start small for my first time crafting with candy corn. ;)

I needed something black to wrap the wreath with, so I just used black crepe paper. Anything would do – fabric, ribbon, even tape:

For the first row, I laid the candies out to check spacing, and then glued them on with my glue gun:

But after that I just glued them on, without checking spacing first.

And I glued. Annnnnnd glued. :)

I did a three rows on the front and then realized I wasn’t crazy about so much black showing through, so I just kept gluing:

(I apologize for the awful photos – the dark is sneaking up on me lately and I’m losing my picture taking light much sooner than usual!!)

The front is a couple layers deep, the sides have one layer. The second layer of corns on top were just placed to cover the black that was peeking through. It went MUCH faster than I thought it would – you’d think it would take forever and it didn’t. You just put a line of hot glue on there, then plop them on in a row, over and over. And over. ;)

Lots of repeating on these crafts. Wrapping, gluing and plopping.

But this is another mindless one that is fun and goes really fast – the perfect craft in my eyes!!

I hung it with more crepe paper on the kitchen window, then added my Ball jars to the window sill filled with more candy corn:

Again with the LED lights plopped inside. You can find them just about anywhere, but I get mine super cheap at the Dollar Tree. I like to have a bunch on hand, especially this time of year!

I love decorating with candy corn – it is so FESTIVE! :) And there’s no danger of me eating them – I don’t care for the stuff. Crafting with it – love. Eating it – yuck. ;)

Now if I was crafting with Chunky Bars, we’d be in trouble.

The wreath was a whopping $4 to create. I have no idea if it will hold up, so the cheap aspect is a good thing. ;) I will spray it with a sealer of some kind and store it in a Ziploc bag and see how it turns out. We may have a fun science experiment come next fall. ;)

But for now, the kitchen window is ready for fall!:

I love that candy corn is a little bit fall, a lot Halloween – so it “works” for the next couple of months. So FUN!

Got any candy corn crafts? I just think they are the cutest! Do share! (And link to them in your comment if you’d like!) Have you started your fall decorating? I plan to work on it this weekend – can’t wait! :)

The Hardest Easiest Fall Wreath Ever

Well, I’ve been at it again. It’s been a while. Almost two years – if you’ve been with me that long, you remember the hardest, easiest Christmas DIY wreath ever:

I had moved on from THEDWE (short for the hardest, easiest DIY wreath EVER, if you didn’t know). I had finally put it out of my mind. The ornaments popping off. The hot glue madness. The wire hangers that would. not. bend.

And I lived to tell the story.

Little did I know that I’d be dealing with yet another…this time for fall.

It started innocently enough – with this pin:

(source)

Isn’t it lovely? I thought so.

I got a grapevine wreath (half off!) to try it out – and then decided at the last minute that I wanted to fill a whole foam wreath with those felty goodies.

Big mistake. HUGE.

Warning! Warning!

Danger Will Robinson!!

I know that now.

I used a foam circle I already had – I took the rose petals off this old Valentine wreath:

And then wrapped it with some scrap fabric I had:

This was just because the foam wreath was pink, and pink isn’t exactly the fall look I was going for.

I got some felt from Joann’s in some fallish colors – orange and green -- then started my felt flowers. At first I traced circles onto the felt using jars and such, but then about half way into I skipped that and just started freehanding it.

After cutting the circles, you just cut them into a “swirl,” then wrap them into little flowers:

I didn’t realize they really look nothing like my inspiration till just now. Awesome.

Mine are much looser, not as tightly rolled. I like the tight roll a lot, so someday (years from now) when I’m up for attempting this again, I’ll try it that way.

I got a little tricky with mine, by cutting some of my circles with pinking shears. It gave them a little texture which I loved. Here’s how I did them:

The are SUPER easy. You start with the inside of the swirl, then just wrap it around itself and then hot glue the “tail” to the outside of the flower. I used one tiny dab of hot glue on each one, that’s it! They held up great for the most part.

There are two different versions – if you start from the inside, you get the wider, looser flowers like mine. If you start from the outside, you get tighter rosettes:

And I just answered my own question – I bet the one on the right is what’s used in the inspiration pic above. Duh.

Anyway, I used the bigger version so they would take up more space on the wreath – you can see how much bigger they end up being.

Thank the heavens I decided to do that, cause I would have TOTALLY lost my mind if the flowers were smaller.

Cause for two days, this is all I did:

I exaggerate. Just a smidge. I did bathe, eat and play with my child.

But my goodness…it was a lot of stinkin’ crafting. I mean, I love to craft, but really.

The flowers themselves take about a minute to do each – not bad at all. The more you do it the faster they go.

It’s the volume of them that made it take forever. GAH.

Which is my fault, cause I kept going and going – I don’t like wimpy wreaths.

As I made the flowers, I just hot glued them on here and there, and filled in where needed:

Towards the end, I had a ton of scraps, so I cut up tiny circles and made smaller ones to go inside the bigger ones for some contrast:

(That color is weird on that pic, sorry about that.)

And finally, after eleventy billion hours, I had a fallish wreath:

I’m actually quite smitten with it, even with all the glue gun burns. ;)

It’s different and FUN which is just we need fun around this water-ridden house lately:

I have plans to make another fall wreath (hold me?), so we’ll see which one ends up on the front door. This one could go up on the mantel, on the back door, we’ll have to see.

I love it! And it only cost $5 in felt to make it – I used 16 sheets of felt total.

I think the time I put into it makes up for the thrifty factor. Whatever. I just keep telling myself five dollars. Five dollars…five dollars…

The porch hasn’t gotten it’s fall treatment just yet, but this is a great start! I hope to find a pretty fat ribbon to hang it from, maybe a bit lower (if this one stays on the door). For now it’s just hanging with what I had on hand:

Felt and yarn wreaths are sooo in this fall! If you try this one, maybe try it on a smaller scale, or just a few as an accent on a wreath, or just know it will take you a few months days to complete.

:)

So there. you. go – THEDWE -- the fall version…hope another two years passes before the next one. Have you made a fall wreath yet? Was it easier than mine? Wait, don’t tell me, I don’t think I could take it. It’s still too soon…