Stacked Autumn Wreath

Hi friends!

I haven't had the chance to do a decor project in ages! This one fit the bill perfectly.

I love fall decorating. Like, LOVE it. Probably more than Christmas. There's just something about these warm colors. I don't really do the creepy Halloween decorations, so my fall stuff stays out from September until the day after Thanksgiving (when the Christmas stuff comes out, duh!)

I have a wreath on my front door pretty much year round. Grapevine wreaths are my favorite because they are so easy to switch out with the seasons! However, they can be a little thin sometimes. This fixes that, and gives you more ways to personalize! Bonus!

Day 16: Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf

Hello friends!

I don't know about where you live, but fall here in Chicagoland has been beautiful this year! I remember being so excited to be back from Phoenix last year, and being so disappointed in the fall colors we had. This year has been spectacular! You can't help but get outside and enjoy it!

Today's book is a great one by the always fantastic Lois Ehlert, Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf.

It is such a wonderful book for this time of year, and has inspired all sorts of leaf collecting! Matt took Abbey out the other day to collect leaves from school. I told him to snap some pictures (always the blogger!) and this is what he got:

Gosh, I love them!

Looks like a successful trip to me!

Now, I happen to believe that a Nature Walk to collect leaves is a great activity in and of itself, but what if you want to actually do something with all those leaves when you get home? 

Here are some ideas for you:

(Almost) exactly a year ago we made some Fall Leaf Art. Gah! She's so little!

Putti's World has some adorable leaf ghosts and monsters!

Here are some great examples of leaf rubbings from In Lieu of Preschool.

And how cute are these leaf puppets from The Chirping Moms?!

Now get out there and find some leaves!

Just joining in? Make sure you check out the rest of the series!

Be blessed!

Heather




It's A Long Story: blog. facebook. twitter

Day 2: Now It's Fall

We LOVE Fall around here and the changing seasons. Our favorite book to read as we celebrate the beautiful colors is Now It's Fall by Jeanie Lee.

Complete with pull-out flaps to show how the trees change, simple reading, and beautiful illustrations, this book will surely delight the littlest pumpkin in your crew.

See how the pull-out tabs create different pages? Love that!

Today's project is all about taking what you probably already have around the house and outside and creating something new and beautiful! (Much like fall does with the changing colors!)

Here's what you'll need:

Green leaves (to transform them into colorful fall leaves!)

Paint & paintbrushes! We had white and red on hand (and these leaf dishes make festive paint holders)

White paper (any paper will do)

Any other crafty mediums (think crayons, markers, colored pencils, Bingo dabbers!)

The goal of this project is to transform your green leaves into beautiful fall creations! Charlie enjoyed taking his time, mixing colors, and practicing different strokes with the paintbrush. We then moved our leaves over to dry and will then probably glue them onto a tree on another piece of paper. 

Figure 1 - Place leaves on white paper (or other surface that you don't care if it gets dirty)

Figure 2 - Watch your little artist study his intricate work

Figure 3 - Charlie LOVES to paint!

Figure 4 - Isn't he adorable?

Happy Leaf Painting!

Samantha @ The Peanuts Gang

The Sweater Pumpkin

Hi friends! 

This tutorial was my first ever guest post (on Sugar Bee Crafts!) just after I started blogging. I never got a chance to post it here, so I thought it deserved to be shared again. Fall is my all time favorite season to decorate for. It may even out rank Christmas (I know!). I'm so excited to pull this little guy out again this year!

This project started out at Goodwill (don't the best ones always start at Goodwill?). I found this "awesome" sweater for $5, and just knew it had secret pumpkin aspirations.

I started by cutting the sleeves off, and making rectangles out of those top 3 orange stripes.

Note: When you're cutting up a striped sweater, make sure you either do it one side at a time, or make sure the stripes are lined up. Of course I remembered to do that...psh! Who would forget to do that! 

Take one of your rectangles, fold it in half and pin it like so:

(I need more blog friendly pins...)

Sew a 1/4 inch seam down this edge. Then fold each half in half and do the same thing again. You'll end up with something like this:

Repeat this whole process with the other rectangle, and then sew the two rectangles together, leaving you with something like this:

Grab a needle and thread and gather up one end of your pumpkin. It's difficult to get it closed up all the way, so I cut a rough circle out of brown felt and (very!) roughly whip stitched it on to cover up the edges.

At this point, it also makes a great hat!

(I love this smile!!)

Loosely gather up the other side. Fill your pumpkin with fiber-fill, our your stuffing of choice, and cinch it up. Leave your opening large enough that you could shove some more stuffing in there if you want once it's closed. 

Now your pumpkin needs a top. I grabbed a stick from outside, cut pumpkin-toppy (??) shape out of some green felt, and stuck the stick through the middle. I put a bit of hot glue around the bottom of the hole, just to keep everything secure.

This piece then got hot glued to the top of my pumpkin. Then I added some copper wire that was just sitting around. I twisted it around the stick a few times, and then wrapped the ends around a pencil to make some super cute little curly-cues.

Isn't it cute? I am thrilled with the way this pumpkin turned out. I plan on turning the bottom part of my sweater into a pumpkin as well, and maybe the turtleneck as well! I'll have a cute little pumpkin family! OK...maybe you're not as excited about that as I am...Whatev.

Sorry for the lame-o pics! I craft in a basement, and took pictures at night. Bad blogger, bad!

Be blessed!

Heather

I'm linking up. Come play with me!

Fall Leaf Art

I love that Abbey is at the age that we can start doing arts and crafts together. I love it even more when said arts and crafts are free! Our neighborhood is absolutely loaded with all sorts of pretty leaves right now, so I decided to take advantage and do some leaf art.

See? Isn't that pretty? How cute are those little baby maple leaves?!

This project could NOT be any easier. 

We picked up some leaves on our way home from the park. It gave Abbey a nice distraction since she was not happy about going home. Bonus!

We started out with some glue. Abbey spread some glue onto her paper, and then I went back and made sure there was a decent amount there so the leaves would stick.

Once the glue was on, Abbey got full creative freedom!

Can you tell she doesn't like getting her hands messy? haha!

And here it is....easy peasy!

How's that for a proud face?!

A trip to the orchard

We went apple picking this weekend. That is one of the things I missed most while we were in Arizona! There is seriously nothing better than a ripe apple straight off the tree. We got to spend the day with friends. Matt has known them since he was little, and their daughter is just a few months younger than Abbey. We went to Kuiper's Family Farm and had a blast! This place is adorable! There is an apple side with an orchard and a store, and a pumpkin side that had all sorts of games and run-around stuff. Unfortunately, you have to pay separately for each side and that just didn't fit into our (very small) budget. Apples it is!

First we had to figure out which way to go...

Then we headed out to pick.

Who doesn't need an apple the size of their head?

New friends are the BEST!

Could they get any cuter?! iDie!

Family photo op!!

And of course there were tractors to ride on...

and horseys too...

and the sign of a truly great day...

She slept the entire 40 minute drive home, and then for another 2+ hours once we got home!

God bless fresh air and sunshine!