Fall Crafts

This year, I began hosting "Craft Night" at my church.  Each month we create a craft (or a few).  Most of my family enjoys crafting so I thought this would be a good way to enjoy some girl time.  Our first Craft Night was held in September 2013 and I was surprised to see that we had 7 ladies show up.  We made a pumpkin topiary and a burlap wreath.  Here is my topiary:

I saw this idea on Pinterest (Click here for her directions) and it was actually pretty easy.  I purchased the flower pot base from Lowe's, which was on clearance for $4.  I got the three foam pumpkins, the ribbon and the leaves at Michael's--the bottom and middle pumpkins are the same size, but you can get three different sizes if you choose.  For the "P," I just printed out a fun-looking one on regular paper.  I taped it to the pumpkin and put tiny pin marks around the edge of the entire P.  I then removed the paper and connected the dots.  I just used black craft paint and painted the P. Once the paint was dry, I began to assemble the topiary.  I put some bricks in the bottom of the flower pot and then put in foam blocks.  I then inserted a dowel rod into the foam.  I cut small holes in the bottom of each pumpkin for the dowel rod to fit through.  I also removed the top (stem) of the pumpkin from the bottom and middle pumpkins.  I placed each of the pumpkins on the dowel rod and then trimmed the dowel rod to fit the top pumpkin.  I hot glued the bow to the top and the leaves around the base.  It was a perfect fall piece for my front porch!

We also made a burlap wreath.  You can find the tutorial that I used here.  I followed exactly what she did to assemble it.  It ended up taking me about 45 minutes to wrap the wreath.  One thing that I did do differently is that I ordered my burlap on Amazon.com--it was tree burlap so it was different than what you get in the craft stores, but it was a lot cheaper.  I used about 20 yards on my wreath (although I could have added more--it may have turned out better if I did).  The burlap is a lot thicker than what you get in the store so I don't think you'd need more than about 30 yards.  I bought a 100 yard role for $22 including shipping--and it was at my door in 2 days.  I ended up ordering a second roll because the ladies at craft night used it too.  THIS is what I purchased.  I also purchased a "P" from Michael's as well as the ribbon to make a bow.  I used this tutorial to make the bow by hand although I will say that the bow maker makes it way easier! 

Here is my completed burlap wreath:

Make sure that when you get your supplies for any of your crafts, use the coupons the stores have (JoAnn Fabrics, Hobby Lobby and Michael's).  There are mailers, print outs from their websites, texts, emails and smart phone apps where you can easily get these.  Don't EVER pay full price for anything :)

Happy Crafting :)