Hello friends! Here in the US preparations are happening for Thanksgiving. On a personal note, how on earth is it November 22nd, 2010 already?!!?? Anyway, I digress. Before we pull down the boxes of Christmas decorations and I get all excited about my vintage glass ball ornament collection, I wanted to share a couple fun fall projects.
First up is this pumpkin floral arrangement. Inspired by piles of gorgeous pumpkins from my aunt and uncle's field, I set about to create an arrangement not only for our family table but in a form that I could teach to my daughters' 4-H arts and crafts group. Sooooo yesterday we spent an hour pumpkin scooping, arranging and adorning these pumpkins with 11 of our closest 4-H friends.
Here are my homegrown floral designers! Ranging in ages from 5-15 yesterday, all 13 girls went home with gorgeous silk flower arrangements. (Although this arrangement can be done with real flowers, silk flowers with their wire stems are alot easier to handle!) So proud of all the girls yesterday!
Next up is a simple gift....these would be great as a hostess gift, or in this case, I made a bag of these decorated mini jar candles (pumpkin spice...my fave scent of the season!) for a birthday gathering I attended with my aunt, cousin and friends.
I used the Autumn Leaves cut file by Kelleigh Ratzlaff. Using her file + Cricut + SCAL I was able to cut several of the same leaf on my 6x12 inch sheet of paper. I used Scotch Quick dry adhesive to quickly outline half of the leaves and then poured on the Martha Stewert glitter in Brownstone.
The other half of the leaves got the wire treatment! I wanted my leaves to have a wire stem so I could use them like a floral pick from the craft store. To do this is as simple as liquid glue + craft wire sandwiched between 2 leaf layers.
Each leaf wire was threaded with a jingle bell and a single ribbon bow. I then curled the wire inside the jar candle and held it in place by closing the jar lid down over the wire stem to hold my leaf in place. Simple! I also like adding a circle punched and stamped image to the top of the jar candle.
One more note on gratitude.....I am grateful for these two and all they accomplished......
Traci and Jaycee made an excellent team on saturday! Here's my girl finishing her first 5K race!...
You go girl! Your mama is sooooo proud of you!
