Today I am going to show you how to Make Your Own Fall Wreath. If you’ve been following me for long, you were witness to my one wreath with many different looks for one year. Well, I’m ready for a change. So, I decided to create something completely different.

When I think of fall, I think of cooler weather, sweaters, autumn leaves and flowers. This wreath encompasses all those elements.

Lucky for me I had all the materials on hand. Especially the XL cable knit sweater that I picked up at Goodwill thinking I could make sweater vases out of it.

Materials:

(I’ve included affiliate links for your convenience. I earn a small percentage from a purchase using these links. There is no additional cost to you. You can read more about affiliate links here.)

Instructions:

Start by cutting off the sleeve of the sweater.

Cut, the sleeve in half lengthwise. Then put the right sides together.

Stitch the ends together (try to line up the stripes or cable knitting.) Trim off any excess.

Open your sleeves up to give you one long length of sweater material.

Preheat the hot glue gun. Lay the wreath form on top of the sweater material.

Put a bead of hot glue on the back side of the wreath form and glue one edge of the sweater material to the wreath.


Squeeze out another bead of hot glue, wrap the other side of the sweater material up and glue it against the already glued piece.


Realistically, this is the backside of the wreath, but if you have a see through door like I do, you will want to roll under your raw edges to hide the seams.


Work in 3-4″ sections, adhering one side and then the other until you reach the end of your wreath. Cut your sweater material slightly longer than you need, then roll under the raw edge and glue it down.


Your wreath should resemble something like this:


Hot glue some leaves onto the wreath covering one of the seams.


Then add some flowers. And more leaves, and more flowers, until you have burned your fingers to smithereens!


Next tie one loop of ribbon to cover the top seam.


Tie more ribbon to the loop to give your wreath a more “substantial” bow.


And now you have a warm, cozy and colorful fall wreath! What do you think? I just want to snuggle up to it every time I walk through the door.


Have you started to decorate for fall? Do you have your wreath yet? I’d love to hear about your unique wreath project. And if you need more ideas, enjoy these 24 more Fall wreath ideas:

24 Creative Fall Wreaths | Pretty Handy Girl
Y’all have a fabulous weekend!

 

Artist Inspiration Board

Hey guys, today I’m dishing up a triple dose of posts for you. I’ve been busy, really busy, super busy! And you don’t know the half of it. As you are reading this, I’m on my way home from California. I flew out to surprise my little sister for her birthday. She and her husband are expecting their second child and I wanted to go all “Pretty Handy Girl” on their home ;-D.

First, you can read my tutorial for making this whimsical message center, from a curbside window, over at my friend Sandra’s blog,

Then you can come back here and read about this Artist’s Inspiration board also made from an old window.

Finally, if you like what you see you can head over to Parentables to see an entire post on curbside transformations! You won’t believe some of the before and afters!

Okay, ready? Well, let’s get this show on the road.

Materials:

  • Old divided light windows
  • Foam core
  • Tin snips
  • 3M duct tape
  • Scissors
  • Primer
  • Chalkboard paint
  • Irwin mat knife (or x-acto knife)
  • Clear Caulk (window and door sealant)
  • primer
  • fine grit sand paper
  • Two colors of paint (gold and medium gray)
  • Crackle medium
  • Polyurethane
  • Foam double stick tape
  • mirror
  • ruler
  • mirrored glass
  • tin pots, buckets or recycled cans
  • drop cloth bulletin boards from THIS post

Prepping your window:

You will need to clean, prime and paint your window before beginning this tutorial.

Here is what I did during the prep phase: Cleaned the windows (I used a bleach solution because there was mold and mildew present.) I repaired the glazing that was cracked and missing. I used paintable caulk. No need to buy glazing.

Prime the entire window, glass and all! Once the primer has dried, use the sandpaper to gently rough up the primer (especially on the glass. But, be careful not to scratch through to the glass.)

For the beautiful crackle finish on my window, I started by painting the window a metallic gold color.

When the gold had thoroughly dried, I coated the entire window with the crackle medium. Once that had dried, I painted a medium gray on top. That’s when the magic happens. The paint separates and reveals a hint of gold. It is important not to go back over the gray paint after you paint it on or you will get a gloopy mess!

I finished off the painting prep steps by applying two coats of water-based polyurethane.

Tutorial:

Measure all the individual window panes. Be sure to measure only the exposed glass.

Transfer your measurements to cut 2 squares of foam core. Make sure your blade is sharp! Dull blades will drag and tear the inner foam.

Next, transfer your measurements to cut two pieces of cork board. Cut the cork board with a ruler and mat knife.

Finally cut two pieces of mirrored glass to fit the remaining two panes (need help cutting glass? Have a professional do it, or watch Sandra’s tutorial HERE.)

You should now have 2 pieces of foam core, 2 pieces of cork board (wrapped in drop cloth as I showed you the other day), and two pieces of mirrored glass.

Dry fit all the cut squares to make sure they will fit in the window openings.

Take the foam core and tin pots outside. Spray them with primer.

When the primer has dried, spray the foam core and buckets with a few coats of chalkboard paint.

To view how to print onto painter’s drop cloth, refer to my tutorial here.

To attach the chalkboard foam core, mirrored glass, and drop cloth squares, you will need clear window and door caulk. Snip the top off at an angle. Insert a straightened coat hanger into the tip to puncture the inner lining of the caulk.

Put a fair amount of caulk onto each glass of the window. (Lazy supervisor in the background!)

Press the individual squares into it. Weight the drop cloth squares (with paint cans) while they dry.

To secure the chalkboard and mirror sections, run a bead of caulk along the edges of the boards.

Use a damp paper towel to smooth and clean up the caulk edging.

Once the caulk has dried, you can affix the tin buckets to the window. Drill holes through the bucket bracket or tin cans.

Attach a screw through the hole and screw it into the window pane.

To add a hanger to your memo center, flip the window over and measure down 3″ on both sides.

Use a drill to drive the screws into the D-ring style hangers.

I made this artist’s board to sell, but honestly I’m having a hard time parting with it. So, it may just find a home in my painting studio (aka Bonus Room). But, maybe you could convince me otherwise. How much would you pay for this one of a kind artist’s board? I keep thinking it is a real life version of Pinterest.

Don’t forget to view more of my curbside transformations.

Ahhh, the birds are chirping and the flowers are in full bloom. The azaleas in our yard look like fireworks exploding with color.

I long to open the windows and let in the sounds and the sweet smells.

But, alas, the pollen bomb is still in full dumping mode.

I’m not going to let that get me down. I decided to bring the outdoors in and finished switching out my Valentine’s Day decorating (yup, I like to get the most out of my seasonal décor.)

So, without further ado, here is how I’m celebrating Spring!

I saw the window idea at Classicly Amber (via Pinterest) and had just pulled a few old windows out of a curbside pick up pile. Speaking of Pinterest, if you haven’t tried it yet, you are missing out! It is a great place to “pin” ideas you see and be able to refer back to them easily.

Beth at The Stories of A2Z gave a tutorial on using Pinterest HERE. She’s the one who introduced me in the first place, so I’ll let the master show you the ropes!

I always make it a point to refer back to the original source if I get an idea somewhere else. (Granted, some things are so widespread amongst bloggers, that it is hard to credit the original source.) Pinterest has helped me keep all the ideas together and makes it easier to find the original source. Plus, you can follow other people’s pins and boards. Feel free to sign up and follow mine HERE. Then you can steal my ideas before I blog about it…just kidding!

The striped pedestal holding up the plant is actually a cake stand I made recently using a plate and a candlestick. I’ll be blogging about it later this week, but trust me it is nothing new. You’ve probably seen this trick somewhere else.

This little adorable birdhouse was lovingly painted by my 7 year old son. I always have a stock of $1 birdhouses that they like to decorate on a rainy day. This one brings so much sunshine into my heart.

I love how easy this centerpiece was to create. I rested the ceramic bird into  a shredded paper bag nest. Then set the nest on top of a ceiling medallion ($3 at a yard sale) and surrounded the medallion with ivy.

And finally, my favorite: a robin’s egg nest that I made with chicken eggs.

You can view the tutorial for making the eggs and nest at TLC’s Parentables today.

If you struggle with decorating and creating vignettes, you might want to read a few of the guidelines I use when designing groupings and seasonal décor HERE.

Entering this post into the CSI Spring Decor and Vignettes challenge:

Visit thecsiproject.com

Winter is almost over, and not a moment too soon! I have been hanging onto my Christmas cards and warm fuzzy pillows and throw (from Pier One). But, I have been feeling the Winter blues. So, I decided to make a quick change to the line up in our living room. (Hey, Pretty Handsome Guy, did you like how I used a football term?! ha, ha.)

By the way, speaking of Pretty Handsome Guy, today is his birthday! He’s the big 4-0! Woohoo! I have four months to tease him about being 40 until my counter ticks over too. Then I’ll have to shut up about it.

Okay, sorry for the diversion, back to the topic at hand, falling in love with your room by changing out pillows.

Couch Before – Christmas Pillows and Throw

Sometimes falling in love with a room again is simply a matter of changing out your fabrics or pillows, throws, place mats, runners, a rug, etc. (Especially if you have an old couch that you are hiding under a slipcover.)

I had a few minutes without the kids the other day and suddenly found myself at the back of Steinmart in the pillow section. Within 15 minutes I had grabbed several discounted pillows and was running for the register before I had to pick up Pretty Handsome Boy #2. (Anyone else been in that mad dash to the register using up EVERY single minute before it is time to reclaim your children? Yeah, I figured I was the only one.)

When I got home, I performed transformation magic on the two chairs and sofa in our living room.

Wingback Chair Before

Wing Back Chair After

Club Chair Before

Oh – you eagle eye you – Yes, I know you just saw that pillow in the wingback chair above. I just moved it. FREE transformation Baby!

Club Chair After

Couch Before

Couch After (Throw from Club Chair Before)

Couch After – Close Up Pillows

As you can see in the above picture, I FINALLY put away all my Christmas cards that were displayed on the shutters in the background. So, how about your home? Do you have a room that could benefit from just a few new fabrics? Try it, this is the quickest way to transform a room.
I hope you will check out some other ways to “Fall in Love with Your Home Series”. in February!

NolanBedView
Today we are going to talk about our Camping Themed Boy’s Room, But first, I have been having the best time meeting most of my favorite bloggers at Blissdom.
Dear sweet Home & DIY bloggers, y’all really rock!
A few of those rockin’ women bloggers:
Sandra (
Sawdust & Paper Scraps), Rhoda (Southern Hospitality), Shaunna (Perfectly Imperfect), Ashley (Pure + Lovely), Erin (Two Story Cottage) and Layla (TheLetteredCottage)

While I am here, I figured you might love a good before and after. Here is my son’s bedroom shortly after we moved into our home.

NolansRmBefore2
NolansBeforeRoom
Pretty boring, huh? Poor guy didn’t even have a bed frame. But, frankly, it let me sleep better at night knowing he wouldn’t roll out of bed.
Two plus years later, we moved beyond the rolling out of bed phase AND something divine happened. I met a “real” mural artist and it was like finding a clone of myself! I promptly hired my clone to help me paint a mural in my son’s room.
A beautiful woodland and mountain theme!
DayWall
Tom Barber (mural artist in Raleigh, NC) painted most of the background and I painted the animals (because wildlife illustration was my major in college.)
NolansNightWalls
I bought some corner rounded shelves at Home Depot and installed them in the corner where Tom painted a big tree.
SecretCloset
A perfect spot to curl up with a good book.
CornerNook
The closet is my son’s super secret hideaway.
HiddenCloset
When you open the door you are met by a tent.
Tent
Pretty Handsome Son can either close it up or secure the tent flaps on the sides with the velcro tie backs.
Tieback
The tree is made from some crepe myrtle branches that we had to trim from our trees out front.
Tree
The lantern in the tree was an old oil lantern. I drilled a hole in the bottom and inserted a candelabra light kit. It is the perfect amount of light for him to read stories by.
Lantern
I used a larger branch for the curtain rod. And tied the rod to the shelf with some rope knots.
WindowView
CurtainRod
And I had to add this adorable bird that my son made in preschool. No kids room is complete without his or her artwork.
KnotandBird
He sleeps soundly under the light up moon on the wall.
BedView2
The bookshelf was re-painted and I mod podged old US Geological Survey maps onto the back.
mapbookcase
Thumbtacks
I wish I had a room like this when I was a child. Heck, when he outgrows it (which I hope he never does), I’ll move into his Camping Themed Boy’s Room!
Before:
After:
BedandTree
Bedding from Target Woolrich collection.
home_tour