Spring Door Wreath

Time Needed: 15 minutes
Level of difficulty: easy
Materials needed: straw hoop, 2-3 silk leaf vines, 1 bunch of silk calla lilies, 2 fake birds, 1 package of speckled eggs, 1 spool of matching ribbon, glue gun and glue sticks
Directions: Wrap the leaf vines around the straw hoop and strategically glue into place. Glue the eggs down wherever you want them to go. Then attach the birds and stick the calla lilies into any empty spots or wherever they seem to fit best. Thread the ribbon through the top part of the straw hoop and hang from your door frame. Easy, fast, and oh so cute!
Final cost of this project: $9. I got everything except the eggs at the Dollar Tree and the eggs were on clearance at Hobby Lobby. I love my life!

DIY Grippy Gloves

Time Needed: 10 minutes active time, at least 4 hours to dry
Level of difficulty: easy
Materials needed: mittens, puff paint, and patience

Directions: Lay your mittens flat on the table with the fingers facing each other (you'd hate to have to paint on the wrong side of one of the gloves!) Then, get the puff paint ready according to the puff paint directions, and paint the design of your choice on the palms and fingers. Let dry for at least four hours, or however long the puff paint directions dictate. How easy is that?
These ones are for the hubs, and he LOVES them. I wonder why...

Holiday Ornament Wreath

Time Needed: 10 minutes
Level of difficulty: easy
Materials needed: wicker wreath, glue gun, various assorted ornaments, ribbon

Directions: OK this could not be any easier. Hot glue your ornaments around your wicker frame in the pattern/layout of your desire. Pack them in as tightly as you can so that you can't see the wicker. And, feel free to use as much behind-the-scenes glue as you want to hold stuff in place. I used like 5 sticks. When you're done, tie a ribbon on the top and hang it from your door. Voila!

Helpful hint: I got all my supplies at the dollar store for a total of $6. Nice.

Owl Stockings

Time Needed: 2 hours
Level of difficulty: intermediate
Materials needed: sewing machine, buttons, needle and thread, felt, 1/2 yard flannel, ribbon

Directions: Cut out the shape you'd like the stocking to be in. Then, cut out the owl, his beak, his wing, the branch, and the leaves. Pin them together and sew them on the top layer of the stocking. Leave the buttons off for now. Then, fold over the top of the stocking and sew down so that the lip is pretty. Pin the two sides of the stocking together and stick the ribbon to where the back seam will be. Sew together with the fronts touching and then flip right side out. Stitch on your button eyes and button holly berries. Hang over your fireplace (or in my case, closet) and bask in the glow of your wonderful creativity.

Fall Applique Shirt

Time Needed: 30 minutes
Level of difficulty: intermediate
Materials needed: t-shirt, brown and orange felt, brown, orange, and green embroidery floss, scissors, needle, pins
Directions: Cut a circle out of the orange felt. Cut a dent in the top and bottom to make it more pumpin-y looking. Then, cut a stem out of the brown fabric. Pin them to place on the shirt and embroider around the outside the same way you would stitch a pattern (like in the "I love you" or the "buon appetito" signs). Make sure you use extra thick thread this time to ensure it stays on the shirt and make sure your knots are tight. Then, make the pumpkin look more like a pumpkin by adding 2 curved lines down the length of it. Take the green floss and make yourself a curved vine. And.. there you go! You can wear it from now clear till Christmastime because it's a plain pumpkin and that means fall. If you wanna make it Halloween-y, take some black felt and make eyes and a mouth and sew them on. I left it as is because I want to be able to wear it longer. Have fun!

Upgrading Existing Products

Today, I went into Michael's craft store, and all their plastic gourds and pumpkins were on sale. I bought a green and white one to go with my orange one I already had at home. Problem is, the orange and green ones have frillies on the top, and the white one was plain. It started out like this:Well, if you'll remember my Flavors of Fall Door Wreath, I have a few little things laying around that I can use to froof things up a bit. I punched some holes in the top of the pumpkin near the stem and inserted a few leaves and curled wire. I then superglued them in place so they wouldn't fall out, and now it looks more like this:
Now it matches the other two pumpkins just perfectly. See?

Flavors of Fall Door Wreath

Time Needed: 5 minutes
Level of difficulty: easy
Materials needed: woven wreath, 3-4 clumps of false foliage of your choice, pliers, wire cutters, floral arrangement wireDirections: Clip off any excess length from your clumps of foliage. Stick the foliage into the woven twigs so they start to weave in to the design as well. Then, take the wire and wrap it around one twig near the base of your design. Then, wrap the wire up the design in a spiral, leaving about an inch between each coil. Be sure the wire is hidden in the foliage so it can't be seen. Once it's all wrapped, tie off the wire as before, and clip off. Add any extra wire where things need to be more sturdy.

Helpful Hint: I bought my woven wreath, wire and foliage at Dollar Tree. Because the foliage was 2 for $1, the whole project cost me $3.50. How sweet is that?