Tuesday, November 19, 2013

A Few Favorites: Cozy Fall Night

Don't you just love those cozy fall nights?  Rain pounding on the roof, a warm drink in hand, and wrapped up all snug?  These would make the perfect late November evening curled up on the couch.  Can't you already smell that hazelnut coffee candle???
 
~Kelsey

Monday, November 18, 2013

DIY: Antique Book Pumpkins

 
Well hello there!  Today I have my second of three Thanksgiving posts.  On Saturday I gave you some ideas for name cards, and today I have the perfect centerpiece for your table!

This idea came from a lady in California who passed it on to my sister, who passed it on to me, and now I'm passing it on to you!:)
 
You already know how much I love thrifting, right? What do they say, "Name brands at Walmart prices?"  I'm all for it.  But this thrifting shopping trip with my sister was all for the sake of crafting.  First we picked out some books for our pumpkins.  (I had to go with some vintage ones to get those awesome covers).  We ended up with some old fiction, a German dictionary, books on the Alps, dog attractions in California, and how to groom your poodle......random right?  (Oh, and of course I had to pick up that Sense and Sensibility...who could resist?  But don't worry, we didn't cut it up for a pumpkin.)

And this belt-turned-boho-headband.  (Super simple.  Just pulled a few stitches to remove the buckle and re-glued the leather to cover up the braid).  All for a whopping 99 cents.

 Alrighty.  Enough about my love for thrifting.  On to the pumpkins.  To begin with, remove the cover from your book.  It is easiest with paperbacks, because you can just slowly rip it off.  Just make sure to not break the binding.  Next, draw half of a "pumpkin shape" on the first page of the book.  Cut through a few pages with your scissors.
 

Once you have cut the first layer, trace that outline onto the next page and cut a few pages.  Continue doing this until you have gotten through the whole book!

As you are cutting, try to make sure that your pages are not getting bigger or smaller.

It will be hard to cut close to the seam of the book, but don't worry.  You can cut all of that off at the end.
As you can see, you'll be cutting through a lot of paper!!!  When you have cut through your whole book, hot glue gun the front and back cover of the book together.  (Cover the entire page with glue so that it will stick really well).  When that glue has dried, glue a short stick into the hole on top of the pumpkin (see pictures below).  And now you have an adorable little pumpkin!
 



For this centerpiece, Lara spray painted some big fall leaves gold and sprinkled nuts and pinecones around.


Don't you just love how a little gold spray paint can add some sparkle to any project?


Do you have a Thanksgiving centerpiece made up yet?



~Kelsey
 
Linking up:
More the Merrier Monday

Photobucket




Saturday, November 16, 2013

DIY: Thanksgiving placecards


Hello there!
Today is the first of (hopefully) a few Thanksgiving posts coming up.  Once everyone was done with Halloween, they seemed to all jump straight to Christmas.  But we forgot Thanksgiving!!!  So I hope to inspire you with a few last minute projects:)
My sisters and I were scrolling through my Christmas Pinterest board last year before Thanksgiving, and one sister pointed out that we should try our hand at these little cuties! Lara had recently been collecting a bunch of evergreen branches for a Christmas tea, so we just headed out to our woods and grabbed some sticks really fast.  We got some thicker ones for the base, and some with pineneedles for decoration.
For the base, we cut the thicker ones into pieces (4 - 4 1/2" was about perfect).

The best ones were the ones with nobs and different mosses and lichen growing on them:)


We raided Lara's scrapbook papers.....

And used my "Smash" stamp to add the date on the bottom.

We glued the leaves onto a few of them for extra decoration.







(I didn't get any pictures of the actual process because Lara was moving too quickly;)  But just put a line of hot glue on one branch, smoosh the paper on, add a line of hot glue to that, and press the evergreens and other branch on.  (and yes, smoosh is a technical term;)

 
Here is another placecard that I made....with my handy-dandy Silhouette;)  I probably won't be making these for Thanksgiving because they kinda took FOREVERRRRRR.  But I do like how they turned out:)

 
What are your Thanksgiving plans?
~Kelsey
 
Linking up:

More the Merrier Monday
Sweet Anne Designs - Sweet Sharing Monday