Apple Print Coasters

I love apples! I have very fond memories of traipsing through the apple orchard in my hometown on brisk, fall mornings, my boots damp with dew as I munched on a cold apple I'd snagged from a low hanging branch. I tell you, nothing tastes as good as an apple picked right from the tree- heavenly! 

Well, the other day I spotted some apple prints online and wanted desperately to incorporate something similar into my life! And that's how I came up with these Apple Print Coasters.

1. I started with the usual cast of characters: acrylic paint, fabric with coordinating thread, iron-able batting, and an apple (please ignore that bias tape - it didn't end up being used in my project!).
2. Using a rotary blade since I'm not the straightest cutter when using scissors, I sliced my fabric into 4 inch squares. Once the fabric was prepared, I sliced an apple and prepped my paint.
3. And then it was time to print! My apple was especially juicy, so before I lathering paint on the apple using a foam brush, I wiped it with a paper towel to remove the excess apple juice.
4. Next up: stamping! I didn't want my prints to be completely perfect, so I only reapplied paint between every 2 stamps. I was also careful to also paint the stem of my apple, which I think makes the prints even easier to distinguish. After I had finished stamping, I left my prints to dry for a couple of hours.

5. Once the prints were dry, it was time to assemble! I ironed the batting between two pieces of 4 inch fabric (one of which had been printed upon), and kept things together with a couple of straight pins.
6. Once everything was ironed, I turned to my trusty sewing machine.
7. I ran a simple stitch around the perimeter of the coaster and I ended up using a contrasting thread to make things really "pop."
8. Then I quickly cut the edges off each of the coasters, leaving a but of fabric around my sewn edges... and I was finished!

As I found out, 4 inches seemed to be the perfect size for most of my glasses/mugs as well as the perfect size for my stamping apple!

 Of course, I couldn't stamp in a single color, so I added a few red and green apples to my coaster stash.

These little coaster were SO easy to whip up, I made some extras that I packaged up with a little baker's twine. I think a stack of coasters, along with a box of tea or a pretty new mug, will make great "get well soon" gifts this winter when my friends and family get a cold!

APPLE PRINT COASTERS SUPPLY LIST
Cotton fabric
Iron-able batting
Thread
Scissors
Paint 
Foam paint brush
Apple, cut in half
Iron
Sewing machine

Fall Bottle Centerpiece

If you've visited this blog before, you're well aware that I like to make craft projects out of objects I have lying around my house. And this project is no different! Here's how I whipped up this Fall Bottle Centerpiece.

I started with four, brown glass bottles of old beer (you'll notice that none of the beer is seasonally appropriate- go figure, right?). 
 

After a few minutes under hot water, I was able to scrape and peal the labels off the bottles. Then I gathered a few more project materials (acrylic paint and a bundle of twine) and got to work!

I started by painting the word "fall" on the bottles, one letter at a time. Since I didn't need the paint to be permanent, I used plain acrylic paint rather than paint specifically formulated for glass.

Once the paint was dry, I started wrapping the bottles with twine. I anchored the twine with a bead of hot glue and carefully wrapped the twine around the bottles in two sections per bottle (one section on top of the painted letter and one section on the bottom).

And in no time at all, I was finished with the bottles!

When I first came up with this plan, I had hoped to put branches full of colorful leaves in the bottles (I'm sure you've seen similar things all over the blogosphere). However, Hurricane Sandy blew all of the beautiful leaves off the trees in my neighborhood, so that wasn't an option for me.

So I improvised and turned my centerpiece into a candelabra of sorts.  I grabbed some shorty candles I got at the dollar store a while ago and plunked them into the bottles

How's that for a seasonal centerpiece? 

FALL BOTTLE CENTERPIECE SUPPLY LIST
4 brown bottles
Acrylic paint
Twine
Paint brush
Hot Glue
Candles (optional)

Felt-bottomed Leaf Coasters

I absolutely loved the the felt I used to make my Autumn Felt Garland, and since I had some felt left over after that little project I decided to whip up some Felt-bottomed Leaf Coasters.

I started with the usual suspects: some cork coasters, felt, coordinating acrylic paints, and paper leaves (you might recognize those from my Thanksgiving Pumpkin).

I began the project by tracing the leaves onto the coasters. Then I painted the leaf shapes using acrylic paint and outlined the leaf shape with a contrasting paint color.

Once the paint was dry, it was time to apply the felt bottoms.

I cut circles out of the felt (I made the circles slightly smaller than the cork coasters), and glued them to the bottoms of the painted coasters using Tacky Glue.

And in no time at all, I had glued felt to the bottoms of all my coasters.

And once the glue dried, my coasters were finished. Cute, right? And more importantly, simple!

And when the coasters are all wrapped up with ribbon and accompanied by a bottle of sparkling wine, they make a great hostess gift!

FELT-BOTTOMED LEAF COASTERS SUPPLY LIST
Cork coasters (I got mine at Muji)
Felt
Acrylic paint (I used Americana)
Paint brush
Scissors
Tacky Glue
Leaf templates (optional)

Creepy Window Painting: Happy Halloween!

I don't get into Halloween as much as some folks, and I was feeling a little guilty that I didn't have a single bit of festive decor to represent today's holiday... so I quickly whipped up a little Creepy Window Painting.

Window painting is a simple, inexpensive way for me to add a bit of holiday festivity to my casa. And one of my favorite places to paint is on the window on the bathroom door: it's an old door/window, and the glass is faceted with makes paintings blurry and cool! Here's a brefore shot of my plain, ol' door.

1. For my creepy project, I started with some acrylic paint, painter's tape, old paint brushes, a print out of my creepy saying, and...
2. DISH WASHING SOAP! I know, it may sound strange, but hear me out...
3. By mixing a bit of soap with my paint, it makes clean-up on my window way easier when the holiday is over! (FYI: I initially planned to use a couple of paint colors, but after I got started I decided to use plain old black paint.)

As I mentioned, the glass in my door is faceted, which means one side is smooth and one side is not. For painting purposes, I like to paint on the smooth side (obviously). Plus, since I wanted my creepy painting to  read correctly in the hallway and not in the bathroom, I taped my printed saying to the front of the glass and painted on the backside. That's kind of confusing to write, so I hope the picture is helpful! Also, I used a bunch of painters tape around the window frame since my door is white and I was painting with black paint... but I'm cautious like that!

And to make things extra creepy, I gooped (that's a word, right?) lots of paint on my letters so they would drip and add to the sentiment.

And there you have it - a Creepy Window Painting just in time for Halloween!

CREEPY WINDOW PAINTING SUPPLY LIST
Acrylic paint
Paint brushes (preferably old or not too nice/expensive)
Dish washing soap
Painters tape
Print-out of Halloween saying

Thanksgiving Pumpkin

I love Thanksgiving! So even though Halloween is right around the corner, I've been a little preoccupied with making things for my favorite November holiday... case in point: this Thanksgiving Pumpkin.

1. When I was at Michael's recently, I snagged this tiny bag of paper leaves for $1.00 and picked up the cream-colored pumpkin for 50% off the original price.
2. I wanted to adhere the leaves to the pumpkin, so I grabbed some adhesive and got to work (my go-to glue is Tacky Glue - it works on so many things!).
3. I painted a thin coat of glue on the back of the leaves using a foam brush. I was especially careful to get the glue along all the edges of the leaves as I wasn't planning to seal it, so the leaves had to be completely stuck to the pumpkin.

And after a few minutes of gluing, all of the leaves were on the pumpkin!

But I wasn't done yet! I had saved a small space on the pumpkin for a holiday sentiment. I traced out my favorite Thanksgiving phrase ("Give Thanks") and painted over it using basic craft paint (I use Americana).

And that's all it took to complete my Thanksgiving Pumpkin. 

THANKSGIVING PUMPKIN SUPPLY LIST
Plastic/foam pumpkin
Paper leaves
Glue
Foam brush
Acrylic paint
Paint brush

Autumn Felt Garland

I've seen beautiful, felt garlands popping up all over the DIY blogosphere lately and I've been dying to try my hand at one! So when I was at the craft store recently, I strolled down the felt aisle... and when I spotted this felt color combination I was completely inspired to make an Autumn Felt Garland.

1. I started with 5 different colors of felt, left over templates from my Paper Bag Leaf Wreath, and some brown embroidery thread.
2. I took one of my leaf shapes, and traced it as many times as I could onto a piece of printer paper. Then I went through my "sewing bin" and grabbed some straight pins and my fabric scissors.  
3. I made a stack of felt 5 pieces thick (one piece of each color) and pinned my page of leaves to the top.
4. And while I watched TV, I cut out all those leaves! It didn't take very long at all, and I was able to get 60 leaves out of 5 pieces of felt!

Once I had separated all of the leaves I had cut, I laid them on top of each other in a Roy G. Biv pattern (I couldn't help myself). I overlapped one end of a leaf to the next before pinning them all together.

After I had pinned my garland, I lugged out my trusty sewing machine (which is older than I am and still in working condition, which blows my mind every time I use it!) and simply stitched all the way down the garland.  I'm not a fan of measuring unless it is absolutely necessary, so I eye-balled the sewing and tried to keep the line of stitches down the middle of the leaves.

And truth be told, I could have been done after the sewing... but I wanted a one last touch of autumn... so I hand-stitched using embroidery thread over the line I had just stitched with the sewing machine. 
5. Starting on top of the garland, I started by inserting the needle a little less than half an inch from the previous stitch.
6. When I brought the stitch up from the bottom, I actually brought it up behind the the stitch I had just started, making sure the needle came up between the strands of the embroidery thread.
7. I especially like this stitch because it creates a continuous line of color, as you can see!

And after all that stitching, my garland was finally finished!

Here's an up close shot of all that hand stitching... kind of fun, right? And I used all of the strands of the embroidery thread (rather than splitting it up), so the stitching really stands out!

And here is my finished garland, hung on my entertainment unit

I really like the way this turned out... and for a an hour or two of effort, this garland really adds a pop of festive color to my place! 

AUTUMN FELT GARLAND SUPPLY LIST
Craft felt (5 pieces of approximately 9x11inches)
Embroidery thread (I used just under 2 skeins on this project)
Leaf template
Printer paper
Marker
Straight pins
Scissors
Thread
Sewing machine (you could skip this step if you wanted to!)
Embroidery needle

Paper Bag Leaf Wreath

With fall just around the corner (well, here in NYC at least), I wanted to create a fall wreath for my front door. So the other day, even though I didn't have any traditional wreath making supplies on hand, I got to work and created a Paper Bag Leaf Wreath. Let me show you how I did it:

1. I started with a paper grocery bag, a marker, some computer paper (left over from an older project), and a stapler.
2. I folded some of the computer paper in half and free-hand cut different kinds of leaves. I used photos on the internet for reference, but if you wanted your leaves to be  more authentic there are lots of leaf templates you can print/use for free online!
3. I folded pieces of the paper bag (in an accordion style) and traced my leaf templates using the marker. 
4. The reason I folded the paper bag was so I could cut several leaves at once, saving myself a little bit of time. In order to keep the paper bag folds together, I strategically stapled the bag around the leaves I traced.

5. In no time at all I had a pile of leaves cut and ready to go!
6. Of course, leaves in the fall aren't plain brown, so I filled up my palette with paint and got to work. 
7. To get a realistic, mottled look (like real leaves turn in cooler weather) I dipped my foam brush in a variety of colors and messily swirled the paint over each leaf.
8. Once the leaves were dry, I crumpled them into balls and then smoothed them out again to get a bit of texture.

9. Since the leaves were almost finished, I decided to turn my attention to the base of the wreath. Again, since I didn't have any actual wreath making supplies on hand, I pulled a piece of cardboard out of the recycling bin, cut it into pieces, and hot glued them together to create a rough circle.
10. Starting with one layer of leaves, I spaced them out before I hot-glued them onto the cardboard circle. I gradually added more and more leaves until I liked the look of the wreath and the cardboard circle was no longer showing through the leaf layers.
11. When I was done gluing the leaves, I flipped over the wreath and added a few circles of painter's tape so I could hang my new wreath. Since the whole thing was made from paper, it was very light and the tape was all I needed to hang my new decoration!

Oh, and there were two more steps that I took to make my leaves look more authentic! First, I took a dark brown ink pad and lightly rubbed it along the top of the leaves. By doing this, the wrinkles in the paper picked up the ink which added a bit of contrast and texture! Then I grabbed a fine tipped brown marker, and drew lines simulating leaf veins along each of the leaves.

And that was all it took to create my new wreath! I'm really pleased with the way it turned out, especially because I was able to make it for FREE! I had all of the art supplies in my stash (paint, hot glue, markers), and everything else came out of the recycling bin (grocery bag, scrap cardboard, computer paper)! 

What do you think? Even in the less-than-perfect lighting of my hallway, the wreath adds a bit of autumnal fun to my front door! Do you use paper bags, or any other "free" supplies in your crafting? Do you have any fall craft projects in the works?

Paper Bag Leaf Wreath SUPPLY LIST

Paper bag from the grocery store (Free!)

Stapler/staples
Scissors
Scrap computer paper

Sharpie markers

Americana paint

Foam paint brush

Scrap cardboard

Hot glue gun

Painter's tape