Monthly Archives: October 2011

Pumpkin Decorating

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I’m not sure how it happened but Halloween snuck up on me, again. I made both of my children’s costumes, but I never made it to my own this year. All of those fabulous ideas for my yard fizzled. But Halloween is here, and i have the Make Do Craft spirit. (That’s kind of like Casper with a glue gun)

Cheap Home Decor Projects with Pumpkins

halloween pumpkin witch

Halloween Pumpkin Witch

I joined a CSA, so I have a metric ton of squash and pumpkins right about now so i stacked up two pumpkins and added a baby witch hat for a bit of decor. I’ve artfully arrange groups of squash and pumpkins around my home anywhere there’s a spare square foot.

While I was on vacation I found a whole lot of other ways to display with pumpkins. I wanted to share a few of them with you. Most of these can extend beyond Halloween and decorate well into Thanksgiving.

 

 

Decorating with Pumpkins

 

  • Line up small pumpkins or gourds above your door lentil. I saw this in Falmouth, Mass. It looked clean and traditional.
  • If you don’t have a door lentil, you could use your porch railing as well. Medium size pumpkins and squash work well for it.
  • I don’t even have that, So I arranged over a dozen pumpkins on my steps leading up to the house. I have three large ones, a couple of mediums ones and growing collection of tiny pumpkins.
  • Pumpkins made a great medium to paint, glitter, or otherwise decorate. Make sure your pumpkin is dry and clean, then spray paint gold and sprinkle on some glitter.
  • I’ve piled my squash into a bowl as a centerpiece which doubles as storage until I can be bothered to cook them.
  • Pumpkin characters: Taking the witch idea above and you can add other accessories to make pirates, pilgrims, or santas.

What are your ideas to take fall produce and decorate with it? Leave a comment below and let me know.

 

 

 

No Money Home Decor – Trees

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Fall is here and it’s the perfect time for some super no cost, no money home decor change ups around your house. Here’s my top five list of things to add a little fall to your home, when money doesn’t grow on trees.

  1. Twigs in a vase: Take some small sticks or twigs and group them together in a vase for an earthy arrangement without the florist’s bill.
  2. Pressed leaf charger: For your next party gather up newly fallen leaves, press them in between a couple of books (Be sure to put down paper to protect the books) Lay them out to acts as charger plates on the dining table.
  3. Pine cone ornaments: Do you have plant hooks, with less than vibrant plants hanging on them? Hang pine cones in groups from a string to replace your dying summer annuals.
  4. Acorn basket: Collect all those acorns falling into your back yard and display them in a small basket
  5. Branch Book shelf: The Nate Berkus show did a fabulous book case by taking a birch branch and combining it with standard shelving. They cut the branch so it looks like it is supporting the shelving, and continuing up through to the next shelf.

All of these no money home decor projects can help you bring in a little nature to your fall decor. Remember to craft with what you got.

Do you have any no money home decor tips for using branches in your home? Have you used any of these tips. Please let me know. leave a comment below.

Upcycled DIY Gifts Roundup

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I love a good DIY gift. It’s heartfelt, I know the person spent time on me. I also love giving them. they are often cheaper than a store-bought gift, I enjoy doing them. I stumbled across a round up of upcycled baby gifts that got me started. these are all gifts people can buy, but just by looking at the pictures i can see how to make most of them.

Upcycled Projects roundup

Check out these sites for great upcycled DIY gifts you can make or buy from the people that do.

17 upcycled baby gifts -  I love the teddy frankenstien-ish animal.

17 gifts from recycled materials – I love the belt floor mat and I’ve done ‘let your book take wing’ printing images on book paper for decor in my sewing room, though this is the first example I’ve seen in color.

100 upcycling projects – a short description of how to do 100 different upcycling projects, some of which can be gifts

upcycled gift wrapping ideas – these are oldies, but goodies. wrapping is the first thing people see, so make it count.

Upcycled Shops

fair indigo – a shop where you can buy upcycled gifts if you don’t have the time to make your own

Uncommon goods – another shop filled with reclaimed and recycled goodies

 

Pallet Repurposing

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Wood pallets have been a staple of redecorating for frugal home owners for decades. It’s a good source of decent quality free wood. a little elbow grease and you have the raw materials to make anything. not only is it cheap, but it is great for the environment too.

Examples of Pallet Repurposing

3 ways to repurpose pallets – It gives examples of rustic coffee table, headboard, and vertical gardening.

sofa from a pallet – Curbly has a pallet sofa

Fabulous rustic plate rack - re-nest made a wonderful green plat rack from pallet material.

7 pallet repurposes – Green diary has 7 unique DIY projects that repurpose pallets into something great including a bike trailer, chair, table, and even a lamp.

 

Really, the possibilities are endless. I mean, it’s wood, a basic raw material that can be used for most anything. So if you have a few spare moments, grab a free pallet near you and get crafting. I would love to see what you did. Leave a comment below and tell me about it. If you have a project using pallets, fell free to link back in the comments section.

Goodwill Artprize 2011: Upcycled Fashions

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What do you get when goodwill teams up with artists from Artprize? You get get some great examples of upcycled fashion.

Upcycled Fashion

ArtPrize challenged five artists to take materials from a Goodwill in Grand Rapids, Michigan and transform them into avant garde clothing. Check the video at the two minute mark to see the fashions. This is a great example of upcycling thrifted clothing, and with some patience, something you can do yourself.

Artprize Upcycled fashion video

Eric Carle Collage Instructions

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Looking for a way to make collages I stumbled upon an instruction sheet from Eric Carle. If you don’t know the name, you probably don’t have kids.

Who is Eric Carle?

Eric Carle is a fabulous children’s writer and illustrator who works mainly in collage. He wrote and illustrated classics such as The Very Hungry Caterpiller, The Very Lonely firefly, and Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do you See? His kids books are fun and colorful. There’s even an Eric Carle museum in Massachusetts.It’s great and I highly recommend it if you’re in the area, especially if you have little ones. Get more info for the Eric Carle Museum.

Eric Carle Collage

That’s why I was so excited to see this worksheet. I love seeing how artists actually create. Now, while I’ll never be a famous artist with Eric Carle’s sense of color and balance (Unless one miracle occurs here), but I can use the same collage technique he does. So here’s the link to the Eric Carle Collage Technique.

He also has an entire book on college if a step by step worksheet isn’t enough for you. Parent’s choice says this about his book on collage: “Nursery school cut-and-paste becomes a real art form with step-by-step lessons from master collagist Eric Carle.” The link for the book is below. I haven’t seen it yet, but it looks like it could be interesting.

Amazon.com: You Can Make a Collage: A Very Simple How-To Book.

I hope you like this. leave me a comment and let me know if you used this technique, feel free to link to any post with the artwork you created using this technique too. can’t wait to see it.