Chunky Yarn Pumpkins

Happy Fall Y'all !

Here is a fun and easy craft to do for the season. 

I have had this fuzzy chunky orange yarn in my craft stash.

I just love the visual texture of it!

For the larger of the two pumpkins, 

I had saved real pumpkin stems to make the stuffed velvet pumpkins 

you may have seen around the web using them, but decided to use it for this. 

(I guess I could still make the velvet pumpkins; I have additional stems)

Anyway...

This pumpkin is a little top heavy as it is sits

on my unfinished faux mantel right now! :) 

Got to get to it!

I believe you basically start with a pom pom tutorial,
but here's some photos to show you what I did:

shoot... I can't remember how many times around I wrapped the clipboard. 50? 

Slide it off the board, keeping loops together

and tie a knot with a separate piece of yarn

Trim of excess strings from tie and initial wrapping

and form loops into a round pumpkin shape!

Hot glue stem and you are done!

Thanks for visiting today!

Cute pedestal made by my friend Risa :)

Party Links : Sugar and Dots, Jennifer Dawn, The Dedicated House, Glamorous Affordable Life, The 36th Avenue, Crafts a la mode, The Best Blog Recipes, Made in a Day, Tatertots and Jello

Halloween Kids Kraft

It's that time (soon) again!  I love Halloween!

And I love volunteering to help with class holiday parties at my girls' school.

Last year for my 1st grader's Halloween party we made these:

Cute tissue paper art! 

I was thinking of tissue paper art 'old school style' where a small square-ish piece of tissue paper is wrapped around the eraser end of a pencil and then glued down, but my friend told me about how you can just 'crinkle' the tissue and then adhere. And it works great!

Bring one already completed to show the kids
what they will be creating! 

1. Cut out several (one for each child) black foam board pieces with an x acto knife and use a hole punch to make a hole for the yarn-loop tie. 

2. Draw a pumpkin shape with a stem on card stock/paper, but only trace the pumpkin shape (not stem) onto the black foam board with a white crayon. 

3. Cut lots and lots of orange tissue paper as well as a good amount of   black tissue paper in small pieces .

4. Gather small flat or semi-flat pieces of bark to glue on as the stem.

5. Remember to have the children write their names on the back with white crayon before beginning the glueing of crinkled paper and bark.

And here is my cute daughter's project! Yeah... looks like she started to write her name on front... haha :)

Linking to these Parties: The Dedicated House, Sugar and Dots, A Little Birdie Told Me, Ducks 'n a Row, The 36th Avenue, Glamorous Affordable Life, Made in a Day, Gingerly Made, Craftberry Bush, Live, Laugh, Rowe, Tatertots and Jello, Homecoming, Love Grows Wild, The Best Blog Recipes, Made in a Day

Rustic Pumpkins

I have a love for rustic-looking things & design even though what you see around my home is a lot of contemporary design.

(Okay, I admit... lots and lots of IKEA. ;)

I had just put my natural decorative balls (from Ikea) in my fabulous silver bowl (from ikea - haha!) when I saw this post from Cool Mom Picks featuring a book called Catalog Living at its Most Absurd: Decorating Takes (Wicker) Balls.

Oops....  ;)

However, I must say, it's worth your time (especially if you need a laugh) to read some of the posts from the author's blog; it's a funny one! (We can all relate and laugh at ourselves, right? :)

Anyway... I made these Rustic Pumpkins being inspired by Michelle at Delicate Construction and her Stick Ball Pumpkins ! Here's my take on them.

The crafty scoop: 

I had a small tree branch that I used for the 'stems' of the pumpkins. To do the same just saw/snap off pieces that fit the scale of the wicker ball. I also shaped some of the ends of the stems a bit with the serrated knife. No need to glue.

For the cute and irresistible curly Qs, wet raffia strings with water and dab dry with a towel. Wrap string around a pen securing the top over itself. Using the cap of the pen, tuck in the ends of the strings. Let dry.

Wrap and/or tie raffia around branch stems and if needed trim ends.

Thanks so much for stopping by today :) Happy Autumn to you!

Linking to the fabulous: The 36th Avenue & Tatertots and Jello.

and Happy Tree Life, itsybitsypaperblog, Sewing Barefoot, The Dedicated House, Thrifty Decor Chick, Made in a Day, Fall Y'll Party

Additional Link: Tatertots and Jello

September Door

I made this door decoration awhile back out of cool place mats from Wal*Mart. I think I saw them first on a blog made into a pillow.

Anyway... my friend and neighbor had a great front door decoration for Easter and I thought I could go a little more bold and bigger for my door decor, too!

The real leaves aren't completely falling just yet here in my part of the states, but they will be.

I love Fall. It is my favorite season!

The crafty scoop:

1. arrange placemats to your liking.
2. hand sew them together trying to not let the stitches show.

3. cut out poster board to match shapes of leaves and glue on back.

4. adhere additional small poster board pieces for junctions between leaves.

5. adhere a piece of ribbon on back

6. hang and admire :)

Linking to the fabulous: The 36th Avenue  & Tatertots and Jello and Sewing Barefoot, The Dedicated House