Fall Crafts and Easy DIY Decor

 Hello Friends and Happy Monday!

Fall is my favorite season! I love the rich warm vibrant colors of fall, truth be told you'll find something fall like in my home year round, because the colors burgundy and gold are my true loves!

The next couple of posts I plan to share a few of my Fall 2023 DIY projects I've created for our home, without breaking the bank!

I would label my decorating style as eclectic - meaning I mix and match different types of decorating styles in the hope of creating one cohesive style. 😊

Fabric Crafts

Quilted Wall Hangings

These two wall hangings I made a few ago years ago but I still love them and happily hang them every year.

Mug Rugs

Mug rugs are larger than a coaster but smaller than a placemat. I'm a big fan of using them and have several around my home.

I googled "pumpkin printable" and found one from morecoffeeformommy.com to use as a template for my pumpkin mug rugs. I grabbed some scraps and cut out the template. I used the QAYG/ string method to create the mug rugs

They turned out so adorable! I plan to make more next year to sell in my shop.

Pumpkin Mini Quilt

I made this sweet crazy patch pumpkin embroidered 10 x 14 inch mini quilt to hang on our pantry door.

Acorn Inspired Fall Decor

Wood Sign - Gather

I purchased these acorn wood cut out ornaments from Dollar Tree to create a wood sign for our kitchen. 

I decorated 6 of the wood acorn ornaments with paint, scrapbook paper, lace, and small wood letters to spell the word GATHER. To cover the holes in the ornaments I added sunflowers from a floral pick I cut apart.

I use 5 gallon paint stir sticks to create backgrounds for the smaller wood signs I make. They are inexpensive and easily cut with a miter saw box.

Nuts for Fall

I can't get enough of Fall and this adorable wood sign says it all!

Fall Door Signs and Wreath

Round wooden signs are my go to choice for door hangers. I usually choose simple designs that are easy to make and look great like the one below for our front door.

The sign below sits outside our front door next to the area where packages are dropped off.

I bought a beautiful single stemmed sunflower from Hobby Lobby to make a simple rope covered wreath as shown below.

That's it for today but come back tomorrow for more of my Fall home decorating ideas!

Until next time craft the life you love ❣

Easy 10 Inch Square (Layer Cake) Scrap Idea

 Hello friends and happy Thursday!

Perfectly Seasoned

I had approximately 20 layer cake squares from Sandy Gervais' Perfectly Seasoned collection in my stash.

In case you're not familiar with the term "layer cake", it is a collection of fabric by a designer measuring 10 x 10 inches square, usually 42 squares in the collection. Moda Fabrics coined the term "layer cake", but other fabric companies sell similar bundles naming them differently.

Perfectly Seasoned is an older collection, no longer available, featuring beautifully whimsical fall prints.

I didn't have a pattern in mind but wanted to create a new table runner and placemats.

Below isn't a tutorial or pattern, basically I'm just telling you how my mind works when sewing on the fly 😄

Cutting

Cut 10 of the squares into 4 - 5 x 5 inch squares

Cut the remaining 10 inch squares into 4 - 2.5 x 10 inch rectangles

Sewing / Assembly

I sewed 24 of the 5 inch squares together to create the center patchwork of the table runner.

I then took the 2.5 x 10 inch rectangles to create borders around the center, making sure that the corner rectangles were the same fabric to make it more visually appealing.

The pictures above show a strong contrast between the corner square fabric and the border fabrics, this is what I meant by visual appeal.

The table runner measures 19 x 40 inches.

With the remaining squares and rectangles I made a set of two matching placemats.

I found a beautiful set of rust colored fall napkins at Hobby Lobby that complemented my newly created table runner and placemats.

While at Hobby Lobby I purchased a package of small wooden pumpkin cut outs and some small fall stencils to create napkin rings.

All in all I'm happy with the results and especially happy with the reduction in my 10 x 10 stash storage container!

Until next time craft the life you love ❣

DIY Wall Art - Craft Stick Hexagon Shelf with Embroidery

 Hello friends and happy Wednesday!

I'm really enjoying home decor DIY projects, I find inspiration everywhere, not everything turns out as planned but the joy is in the journey.

Today I'm sharing a project I just finished that combines crafting and machine embroidery.

Our home has high ceilings and most of the time I have wall quilts hanging. I wanted to spice up the wall near the desk in my craft room.

My husband is a retired engineer who enjoys geometric designs, I was challenging myself to come up with something that would please both of us. Recently, I made this set of hexagon shaped placemats using black and white Kaffe Fassett prints.

Hubby commented on how much he liked the placemats....I had one of those aha moments and I knew what I wanted to make!

Hexagon Shelf - Craft Sticks

I did some online research on hexagon wall art....there was lots of ideas out there, and I got real excited when I saw this video on youtube.

This is one completed unit....

I actually didn't do a great job with this one, I was watching TV and didn't realize my mistake until after the glue had dried.  Lesson learned...I moved on!

After I made 4 and stained them....I began to think what next?  I wanted to add something other than a plant or candle to the shelf unit.  With fall coming up I picked four of my favorite fall designs from Embroidery Library. I traced the back of the hexagon shelf to determine the size needed for the embroidery.

After stitching the designs, I trimmed the fabric and a piece of adhesive felt backing into the hexagon shape then glued them to the hexagon shelf.

Here they are hanging on the wall above my desk area in my sewing/craft room.

And a close up of the designs themselves. I selected fall designs that only used one color (thread), the maple leaf and pumpkin design are blackwork designs with really cool stitch patterns.

They aren't perfect but I'm super happy with the results. I learned a new technique so next time I'll be better!

Until next time craft a life you love ❣

Decoupage with Fabric

 Hello there and happy Tuesday!

I hate throwing things away, I'm always wondering how I can upcycle or repurpose them into other projects. This is especially true for my scrap fabrics.

Decoupaging with fabric is quick and easy way to spice up glass bottles or cardboard boxes instead of tossing them into recycling bins.

My first project was to decoupage the cardboard box shown in the above photo. I started by trimming loose threads on my scrap fabrics and ironing them flat. The scraps were all very small.

I then applied a thin layer of Mod Podge (a glue sealer and finish) to sections of the cardboard box and began sticking scrap fabric pieces onto the areas with the glue, overlapping when necessary to cover the entire box.

After the box was completely covered I applied another layer of Mod Podge. Once the box was dry it had a sheen that I didn't like. Although the label on the bottle read "matte" it was clearly a glossy finish!

After all that work I decided to wrap the box with macrame rope, to hide the sheen. I then decorated the box with the word blessed, wood cuts on each side, added floral foam and faux sunflowers, mums to create a beautiful fall planter for my office.

I repeated the same steps using an empty whiskey bottle. The bright colored fabrics make this repurposed bottle/vase shine! 

The batik fabrics give the vase a lovely texture and looks great with the fall cattails I added.

I'm so happy with my repurposed projects!  They were so fun to make!

Will you try fabric decoupage?

Until next time craft the life you love ❣

Quilting for Fall - Part 3

 Hello there and happy Tuesday!

Today is the last installment of my series Quilting for Fall .  You can find the first post here and the second one here.

Mug Rugs

Making mugs are great scrap busting projects and make great gifts. Mug rugs are larger than a coaster but smaller than a placemat - perfect for a drink and snack. I tend to make my quilted mug rugs 6 x 9 inches or 7 x 10 inches in size.

When possible I try to make a mug rug, using the scraps after finishing a project . Sometimes I include a mug rug as a thank you gift to my customers when they purchase an item from the shop.

Bonus half square triangles and quarter triangles were used to make the following mug rug/coaster sets.

Mug Rugs with Embroidery

I am always happy to include embroidery in my quilting projects.

Below are a few fall mugs I made for the shop, all were made with scraps from the table runners, table toppers and mini quilts I mentioned in my earlier quilting for fall posts.

The embroidery designs were purchased from Planet Applique and Hug A Bug Applique.

Until next time craft the life you love❣

Fall Rustic/Farmhouse Ideas with Cricut Stencil

 Hello there and happy Thursday!

Today I am sharing three fall projects I recently completed using my Cricut cutting machines.

Farmhouse Fall Wood Sign

The next technique on my list to try was making stencils.  My go to source for all things Cricut is Jennifer Maker.  She offers both video and written tutorials.  I really appreciate her step by step teaching style.

Repurposing an old 10 x 20 wood frame and foam board I was able to make this simple wood sign. I found the welcome fall design on the Cricut Design Space software. It is free if you have a membership account. I used Cricut brand removable vinyl and acrylic paint to create the stencil.

Rustic Wood Coasters

I made this set of 6 gorgeous rustic wood coasters using stencils I created with my Cricut Joy.

I was able to shop my craft stash for the supplies I used. While visiting my son's family in Indiana I grabbed lots of fallen tree branches for crafting, they were perfect for this project. 

 I used Cricut brand premium vinyl and chalk paint to create the stencils. The designs also came from Cricut Design Space. Once the coasters were finished I did seal them and added cork rounds on the back for additional furniture protection.

I'm so in love with how these coasters turned out! I stained and decorated a Dollar Tree mini crate to serve as a holder for the coasters.

Reclaimed Wood Serving Tray Décor

I'm hoping to make personalized wood trays as presents for the kids this year and had to practice by making one for myself!

During Amazon Prime I purchased a couple of reclaimed 12 piece wood bundles. Each plank in the bundle measures 3.5 x 12 inches, and I used 5 planks to make one tray.

I glued three planks together using Gorilla Ultimate Waterproof glue to form the center panel. Trimmed two more planks down to form the side pieces and glued them to the center panel.

Once the glue was dry I drilled holes for the handles and stained the entire piece with Minwax Stain in Ebony.

I purchased the handles from Lowe's for $.97, they were originally black so I painted them with a metallic gold acrylic paint. Once the paint was dry I screwed them into the tray.

Again I used a design from Cricut Design Space, since it was larger I had to use my Maker machine to cut it. This time I tried the Cricut brand stencil vinyl, the metallic gold acrylic paint and white chalk paint to create the stencil.

I love how the tray turned out and I made a few mini wooden pumpkins using Dollar Tree tumbling tower blocks to complement the tray.

Until next time....craft the life you love❣

Quilting For Fall - Part 2

Hello there and happy Tuesday!

Today's post is a continuation of my Quilted Table Runner post from last week.

In this post I'm sharing two fall table toppers and 4 mini quilts - recent finishes I made for the shop.

Fall Table Toppers

Autumn Star

This quilted table topper was inspired by the Autumn Star tutorial over at Seasoned Homemaker.

Her version of the Ohio Star Quilt Block focuses on half square triangles and squares, I opted to use flying geese quilt blocks to form the hourglass portion of the star, I also included a machine embroidered sunflower design to the center block.

My Autumn Star table topper/mini quilt measures 24 x 24 inches, I used fabrics from Corey Yoder's Cozy Up collection for Moda Fabrics.

Log Cabin Fall Mini Quilt/Table Topper

I love the copper colored and gold etched leaves fabric from my stash used for this mini quilt. The center portion is made with 4 curvy log cabin quilt blocks.  I arranged the narrow strips towards the center creating space for the machine embroidered cottonwood leaf design. This mini quilt measures 22 x 22 inches.

Hello Fall Mini Quilt

Even with the best intentions some of my projects don't turn out how I envisioned. This 9 x 15 Hello Fall mini quilt is a good example! The sketched pumpkin design from Embroidery Library stitched out beautifully, I'm just not loving the final product.

Rustic Fall Mini Quilt 1

This Give Thanks pumpkin machine appliqued mini quilt measures 8 x 10 inches and turned out great! I used scraps from Sandy Gervais' Give Thanks fabric collection.

Fall Rustic Mini Quilt 2

When I saw this fall country scene embroidery design it reminded of a quilt pattern that I saw in a Fons & Porter magazine several years ago. Again I used scraps from Sandy Gervais, Give Thanks fabric collection.  I created the text portion of the design to match the quilt pattern I'd seen before.  This mini quilt measures 13 x 15 inches.

Grateful Thankful Blessed Mini Quilt

This 10 x 16 mini quilt is the last finish for today. I used scraps from Corey Yoder's Cozy Up fabric collection.  I love the simplicity of the embroidery design, the lace and wood heart button.

Check back for the next installments of my 2023 fall creations!

Until next time craft the life you love❣

Simple Wood Pocket DIY Organizer

 Hello there and happy Friday!

Dollar Tree DIY Wall Storage Decor

Some days I feel like I spend most of my free time trolling the internet for inspiration.

Thankfully, I'm rarely disappointed getting inspired!

I saw the above wood ensemble and decided it would be my DrEAMi (drop everything and make it) project for August! I didn't need three so I decided to try and make my own version of the middle organizer.

I went to Dollar Tree to get supplies:

• 3 - wood rounds (approx 12 inch diameter)
• 1 - nautical jute rope bundle
  
• 1 - package of wood cubes
• wood glue

Keep in mind all Dollar Tree products are not made consistently, try to pick 3 wood rounds that line up as close to perfect as possible!

Assembly steps:

1. Dollar tree wood rounds are thin so I glued two together - aligning the holes in the top
2. Cut the third round in half - glue the halves together
3. Glued one wood cube 1/4 inch down from the halfway point on the whole wood round on both ends
4. Measured and trimmed the jute rope to fit between the wood cubes
5. Glued rope in place - stacking rope onto rope until I reached the height of the cubes - mine was 4 layers deep - making sure the curves of the rope align with the bottom of the wood round
   
   
   
6. Painted all pieces, wood and rope with Waverly's Antique Wax - let dry
7. Glued the wood halves onto the whole wood round 
8. When gluing I made sure to align the half wood to the cubes on top and the rope on bottom
9. Added small nails on the end portion of the half wood to ensure the bond to the cubes was strong and secure
10. Created a beaded hanger with twine - threaded the hanger through existing holes

I could see the small nail heads on the front so I added the trim of lace. I could have added more antique wax but felt that might make it super noticeable.

I was feeling so pleased with my efforts I added a vinyl decal saying "You Totally Got This"!

I'm currently using the wood pocket organizer to store my printed open orders.

Until next time craft the life you love❣