Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Welcome, Pumpkin Season!

It's that time of year when school shopping lists come out, sweaters start making their entrance, pumpkins start popping up around every corner, and fall is in the air!

Eh, who am I kidding?! These last few days it has been, like, 85 degrees and 90% humidity with rain and thunderstorms nearly 20 hours of the day! It's nothing like fall in the air...

BUT IT IS SEPTEMBER.

So that means my craftological clock is a tickin' and it's time to start preparing for the fall season decorations and PUMPKINS!

So, as a part of the kick off to the season, I wanted to add a few new fall decorating projects to the house. So after a whole lot of pinning and hunting, I found a few things that I wanted to try. So I present to you, my cross cut tree stump pumpkins.
If you give them a shot, please comment and share! I would love to see what you come up with.

So here was my initial supply gathering, I found later that I did have to add a few more items, so pay attention to the supply list. You will want the following to complete this project:

Orange acrylic paint -- I decided to use three different colors of orange to vary up the different pumpkins in my project.
Brown acrylic paint
Three cross cut tree stumps
Six small scraps of wood
Wire cutting pliers or multi tool
Scissors
Two paint brushes -- one thinner/finer and one square brush
                                      Hot glue and glue gun
                                      "Natural" fiber wrapped wire
                                      Three burlap or earthy toned ribbons


I started by painting each of the wood slices different orange colors with the square paint brush. I made sure to take special care to avoid the bark of the wood at the edges. I liked that this made a very specific line for me to follow so I could keep the edges looking really clean. I also found that it took two to three coats to get a nice even coat on the wood.





Then I added detail to each pumpkin to help give it a little dimension. I just stitched back and forth between the three orange colors to create the lines and ridges of a pumpkin. looking at the base of the wood cut, I followed the lumps to make the ridges of the pumpkins.




Then I needed to paint the stems of the pumpkins. I had just a homemade decorative wheelbarrow made the evening before and had these scrap pieces of wood in the garage form that project. I originally picked three of them, but found in the end I also needed three more. You will see why later in this blog. I also took a look at the craft store and saw lots of options that would also work for this. But I am thrifty (read cheap) and knew I could find something at home to complete this. 

I then used the brown paint to paint the stems with the finer paint brush. 



To match up the styling of the painting on the pumpkin, I made sure to avoid the edges of the stems. After that, I went back with the orange paint and put in a little light stem detailing into them. I made sure to REALLY lighten up on my touch with the square brush and remove a lot of the paint from my brush for the "texture" of the stems.



While all the paint was drying, I starting to make the little vine twists that I had added to the pumpkins. Using the thicker part of the square brush (after I cleaned it) I cut longer lengths of the natural wrapped wire. I cut them just a bit longer than my paint brush and then wrapped it around the handle of the paint brush to make the little curls of the wines. I did find I needed a scissor because the multi tool/wire cutter did cut the wire, but the wrapped fibers around them needed a little extra coaxing to cut apart.  The fibers on the wire were starting to come undone a bit, so I glued the edges of the wire and fiber to help keep it from unraveling. 







Everything was dry at that point so I glued the stems onto the back of the pumpkins. Make sure you are PLENTY liberal with the glue because you really want it to stay. I also glues the twisty vines onto the back of them at that point too. I positioned some of the same side together and some with one on each side. 




It was at that point that I tried to set the pumpkin back up on its side to get it to stand up... and found that the stem I had glued onto the pumpkin now made them all just a little top heavy and each one would fall backwards. So this is where the three extra pieces of wood come in as promised. I glued those to the back and bottom of each of the pumpkins to get them to stand upright. 





 AND THEY WERE ALL DONE!!!!

Well, almost...


At this point, I originally thought that this was where I was going to be all done with these pumpkins, but something just seemed to be missing for me. So I went to my drawers of ribbon and decided to give a few scraps a try. This seemed to be what finally tied them all together for me and finished them all in a nice... well... bow. :) So I hot glued them to the top of each pumpkin and cut the ribbon ends to my desired length.

AND THERE YOU HAVE IT! Tree stump cross cut pumpkins!

ENJOY CREATING!


Please create and share your pumpkins with me! I would love to see what yours look like too! 

Don't forget to share, comment, and subscribe! 

Monday, September 5, 2016

Crafting Happens

I will be the first to admit that life has taken a series of very unexpected twists and turns over the last two and a half years. Things in my family and personal life have left my opportunities to take on this blog, and other projects of mine, a bit at the way-side in hopes of picking them up when the time lent itself to the possibility of a return.

Just a little over a year ago, my mother passed away from an incurable cancer. My life had also taken a bit of a turn a year earlier as my more immediate family of children and spouse lent to a few complications in their health and wellness too. I am glad to report that it seems life is making way to a much more manageable spot in the world.  But as it continued to do so, I still felt like there was something missing in my day to day that really helped me feel like me again.

I started cleaning out my mom's craft room(s) just recently, there it was: CRAFTING. I was missing crafting. The paper, the new trends, the latest technique, the feeling you get when you take something so simple and figure out how to turn it into a beautiful masterpiece. I had been missing the time I would take out of a day to blog, to share, and to consciously craft!

And as I looked back a bit, it turned out that perhaps, I was still doing it, but just a little less consciously. Everywhere around me, I was finding little opportunities to glue and glitter and sew and cut:

I ran for a position in a state volunteer organization and found that I was creating little pop-up cards to send to local chapters -- crafting happened.












My daughters needed to have valentines for Valentine's Day -- crafting happened.












A local charity raising money to help children with potentially terminal illnesses needed a costume for their event -- crafting happened.













I run an international philanthropic "beauty pageant" in my extra time. We needed gifts for the delegations for the opening day of pageant week -- and chocolate crafting happened.













And then, the other day, as I was gluing the last leaf on a dress form that I was using to create a window display at my now job, I realized that crafting had been happening all along... right there... in my store!!







At first, during Christmas time when I made garland and lights look like a tree and a dress for our window!

















And then, in February when the dress became from a bunch of our men's ties and people were purchasing them right off the dress!











And then at prom when I crafted paper dresses that said "yes to prom" all over them.




And since I had to try to top it, a wedding gown in duct tape made its way into the shop window too! 


And now, that the leaves are going to start turning and I am sending my kids off to their first day of school tomorrow, a paper leaf dress.

There it was: crafting. It was happening. All over the place and I just hadn't seen what I was up to.

And all of a sudden, I was just a little happier. I felt a little more fulfilled. I took a deep breath in, and for the first time in quite a while, I exhaled.

We all get to a place in our lives where we add on too much. Too much happens in our lives and takes us away from those things we enjoy. The things that make us feel whole and satisfied. Make us just breathe out.

And I wondered why... I just got so wound up in it all and everything I had to take care of not to take a moment to just do a little bit of what I really loved... consciously.

SO here I am, resurrecting the Blog, adding a new page to my facebook, adding twitter etc., and starting back at what I truly love: Crafting.

I hope that the enthusiasm I have for the crafty arts can inspire you to also consciously enjoy a little bit of what you truly love, and I hope you follow and come back and enjoy a bit of what I have to share too! :) Please enjoy my upcoming youtube tutorials, my crafting lessons, kits, and completed projects for purchase and more!

BACK TO IT Y'ALL! HAPPY CRAFTING!