Wood, glass and vinly pumpkins, Oh my!

I may be going a little overboard with the pumpkins for fall, but I can't help it! I recently updated my pumpkin topiary with a little bit of greenery from the Dollar Store and I absolutely love it!

Then I found this little wood napkin holder at Goodwill for only $2.38.

I had my ceramic pumpkin and a fall table runner on the table before I found this little guy and it was a pain to take them on and off the table every time we ate.
The napkin holder is perfect because it allows me some decoration on the table, but it is practical because I do not have to take a ton of stuff off of the table every time we use it!
Next up are my glass pumpkins, which I made last year and never showed off. I originally saw these in Family Fun magazine and followed the tutorial to make my own. When researching to find the original article, I happened upon this blog that gives a good tutorial using crepe paper instead of tissue paper.

Basically, you cut tissue paper into strips and then modge podge it to the outside of a glass jar. I had some random Ball jars, orange tissue paper and black construction paper on hand and whipped these up in about an hour. I love the glow they give off with a tea light!

The magazine article also pictured a Frankenstein using green tissue paper, but you could do so many different things, like candy corn, a witch, or even a ghost. So fun and cute! This would be a great project to get the kids involved in as well.
Finally, while cleaning out my mom's garage this past weekend, I happened to find some white dryer duct. My mom told me to toss it, but I walked past the trash can to my car. My family thought that I was nuts to want to keep it, but they knew that I would have something up my sleeve! I saw these adorable pumpkins that Allison at House of Hepworths made out of aluminum dryer duct and spray painted orange. The dryer duct that I had was white vinyl. I love the look of white pumpkins, so I decided to make one first and spray paint it later if I did not like the white. I decided to use materials that I had on hand, so I cut a toilet paper roll in half and rolled it up to make the stem. Then I tied some green gift ribbon around the stem and curled it using my scissors. Finally, I hot glued a leaf (leftover from my topiary project) to the top.


I had enough dryer duct to make 4 pumpkins, though one was kind of short and I burned my fingers trying to pull the two ends together. It was totally worth it! I love the look of the white pumpkins, but I especially love that this whole project cost me absolutely nothing!
I am linking this post to Allison's Hooking up with HOH party.
What fall decorations have you made lately? I would love to hear about them!

Fall Topiary

I used my day off today to set out some of my fall decor. I absolutely love everything about fall, from the weather to the colors and holidays (Thanksgiving is my favorite). I also used some time to create a new piece of decor to add to my growing collection of fall items.
Last year around this time I saw some pumpkin topiaries in blogland (specifically from a post by Michelle at From House to Home) that I absolutely fell in love with. We were living at my in-laws and in the process of moving, so the topiaries were not a priority at the time. The other day while reading the paper I came across the Michael's ad and saw that all the faux pumpkins were 40% of and decided that I needed to make the topiaries. I ran out and bought 3 different sized pumpkins for a total of $25. I knew I could have saved a little more if I waited for them to not be on sale and used a 50% off coupon, which is why I only bought one set. I plan on making another one to have one on each side of my front door. The next day I cleaned up a terra cota planter that I had in the garage:

I then pulled out my scrapbooking supplies and cut some circles out of contact paper in 3 different sizes. I stuck the circles randomly around the pot so that it would appear polka dotted after spray painting.


I painted the planter and while it dried, I worked on preparing the pumpkins. I cut the tops out of the two pumpkins for the bottom so that they could sit flat on top of each other. I used a regular kitchen knife and cut right around the stem in order to leave most of the pumpkin intact.

I then put hot glue around the top of the biggest pumpkin and placed the medium sized pumpkin on top. I repeated that process to attach the smallest pumpkin to the top. I then affixed some black scrapbooking stickers to the fronts of the pumpkins to spell out, "Boo!"

When my planter was dry, I removed the contact paper circles to reveal my polka dotted planter. I placed the pumpkins inside the planter and attached a ribbon around the stem of the top pumpkin. Love it!

Unfortunately, I decided to add some sand to the bottom of the planter to weight it down a little (there has been an unbelievable wind over the past 2 days and thought it would blow over and break). While carrying the planter back inside after filling it, I only had ahold of it with one hand. The weight was too much and the planter crumbled in my hands:( I was unable to photograph it in it's rightful spot by my front door. The final reveal will have to be made once I finish the second topiary and place them where they belong. Hopefully I will have the rest of my decor up at that time as well!