Fall Crafting

We were in transition for a few falls in a row and I just wasn't feeling creative.  But this year I met some wonderful, crafty gals in my new town and they are just inspiring me right and left.  Mostly Shey.  She sees something interesting and can figure out how to make it.  And her craft room is super clean even when it is not doubling as a guest room.  My fall crafting binge started when Shey posted her progress on hot gluing pinecone scales to paper cones in order to make trees for a benefit auction.  So then I wanted to try it, and she showed me how (and told me to bake the pinecones in the oven to get the bugs out first).  Here is the tutorial if you want to try it.  I love how you can sit and hot glue stuff mindlessly while chatting with a friend.

Each day when Bowen and I meet Olivia getting off the bus we are greeted with acorns.  Back in September when they were green we'd collect them, but eventually they turned brown.  So then I wanted to have evergreen acorns and Shey gave me the idea to spray paint plastic eggs and add pinecone scales to the top.  And then our friend Pam wanted to learn, so we had dueling glue guns at her house.  And she introduced me to Kara, who also likes to make stuff and doesn't think it's a big deal to own a jigsaw.  Love that!

I did oil-rubbed bronze spray paint on several and glued twine onto another, and then I had the idea of covering a styrofoam egg with brown paper bag pieces.  And once that one was finished I decoupaged a styrofoam pumpkin from the dollar store.  I used tacky glue to hold the pieces on initially, then brushed Mod Podge (watered down a bit) over the top.

And once that was finished I decoupaged a pumpkin with book pages, and I have another waiting patiently to be just today covered another one in sheet music.  (I started this post days ago and keep getting interrupted).

Somewhere in there I decided to paint the exterior doors navy blue, and then realized my old fall-toned wreath would look like a raging UVA fan weird with the blue and also was dry-rotted.  In the spring Olivia and I had pulled grapevines out of a holly tree in our woods, and then wound it around itself to make wreath bases with no particular project in mind.  Those were still just hanging in the garage, so I bought some silk flowers and went to work with my trusty glue gun.  I tell you I haven't touched that thing in years, and now I have had to restock on glue sticks twice.  I finally got long ones that need reloading only half as often.

After that I thought my pillar candles could use a little visual softening, so I made little grapevine wreaths for them, too. I love how the tendrils add personality.

Then Shey had a group of gals over to make burlap banners that spell out "thankful." They're just layers of fabric bonded together using fusible interfacing.  It was fun to work on a project all together, each with her own style.  I didn't finish mine that night, but a few girls who couldn't make it got together separately and I finished mine.  I love that a bunch of friends have these banners now, and I'm so thankful for friends who don't just paste a label on me as "the crafty one."  People are so supportive it makes me want to finish projects and actually do the things I have pinned for later.

The burley tobacco basket is from our trip to North Carolina this summer

There's another cone tree up there.  Browsing through Pinterest I saw a Christmas ornament covered in pistachio shells, which got my wheels turning.  I had my little helper crack shells while I glued them on the cone.  These brown paper cones are from Hobby Lobby, but you can also make them out of cereal boxes.

I have made countless trips to the local craft stores.  They are my happy place, and using my 40% off coupon on a set of plunger leaf cutters really makes my day.  The kids have been asking for pumpkin pie, so I tried out making a leafy crust.  Except I had it on the top rack and the leaves got a little singed, but we forced it down anyway.  I am hoping that this year at Thanksgiving they will eat something other than rolls and pie.  One of them likes stuffing now, so that's hopeful. (Insert eye roll).

I have a bunch of UFOs (unfinished objects) sitting around precisely where they were when I lost steam or got distracted.  Last year I made the big sweater pumpkin with the leaf, and this year I found the sleeves to that sweater and also a hat I had thrifted to become a pumpkin.  So I cut some sticks for stems and skipped the leaf part in order to actually finish.

Other UFOs include a pair of button-up legwarmers I'm knitting during soccer games to calm myself. I am that mom who screams directives at her child during the game.

Shey wanted to make stars out of grape vine, so she made this jig and she and Pam came over to pull some vine.  We couldn't get the open-centered stars to come out like Shey wanted, but I made a bunch of these criss-crossed stars with her jig.  Not sure what I'll do with them, but I'm starting to think toward Christmas crafts now!  I even bought a cross-stitch kit (one of the buildings in Santa's Village).

And in the spirit of keeping things real, please know that I'm not creative in every way.  Here is my car during Trunk or Treat, and the kids' costumes were store-bought. Halloween is my decorating/crafting kryptonite.

Not everything I make turns out awesome.  I had a picture in my head where I was going to wrap grapevine around a paper cone and it would just stay in place like it was wire, but it didn't.

Nailed it!

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