It's the Great Pumpkin, Ya'll!

I feel certain this is my final fall tutorial. ;S For 2010, that is. I started in August, after all. I have 2 tutorials below. They are easy peasy!

Fall Candlescapes that I will use through Thanksgiving...

I simply took what I already had and threw it together. This project used (3) 7.5" cylinder vases from Dollar Tree (these were used in our wedding as well as a baby shower I co-hosted this month for a dear friend), (3) LED 6" pillar candles. These were a gift from a dear friend for our wedding {even better that they are vanilla scented}, fall leaves (I think I purchased a bunch at Publix for $3, which you can also find at the craft stores), fabric fall leaves that I double-side taped onto the LED pillars. No worries, it will come off like a charm. Once inside the vase, I inserted 3 of the fall leaves from the bunch. I used LED pillars because I won't have to worry about the leaves catching on fire and I can simply pull each pillar out to turn it on. Piece of cake! Below are Candles 1, 2, and 3. The final reveal is after the pumpkin tutorial as I took pix of both together on our mantel.





Now for the Pumpkins... I'm not big into Halloween Decor so I mainly decorate for fall and Thanksgiving. However, for those of you out there who decorate for both, this tutorial is still applicable. I bought (3) pumpkins from Dollar Tree. They were ugly, and I mean ugly. I originally wanted to prime them and paint them Heirloom White so they would resemble all those white pumpkins I've been crushing on since last year. Well, I just did not have it in me to do all that spray painting before or after the shower I co-hosted earlier this month. I had sprayed one as a test with Oil Rubbed Bronze (ORB) but it was too black for what I wanted. I started painting another one in a cream acrylic paint. Not feelin' the love... Then it hit me ~ I love my Metallics acrylic paint in Rich Espresso Brown. Why not paint them with that? To get a good base, I painted them first with Patio Paint in Chocolate Brown. Below are the pix with the 3rd pumpkin being the only one that had just the Patio Paint and Metallic Paint on it. The others had ORB & cream acrylic paint on them first.





And now for the reveal... No, I don't plan on leaving the pumpkins here as they don't really fit but it works for the sake of snapping a photo. Nice streak on the bottom of our mirror that I need to wipe down again. :) The only thing I don't like about how they turned out is you can see a line in the middle of each one where it was in its mold. I'm thinking some ribbon will take care of camouflaging. You get what you pay for, but they are cute nonetheless. You cannot tell the candles are on since it is daytime but they are cute, too.



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I'm linking up to Hope Studio's Tutorial Tuesday! You can view this and other fabulous tutorials on their blog.


I'm also linking up to Sugar Bee's Take a Look Tuesday, too. Check out all the other bloggers on her site, too.


I'm also linking up to "Toot Your Horn Tuesday" at The Silly Little Sparrow's blog.

I'm linking to "The Halloween Pumpkin Parade Party" at the Fabulous Under The Table & Dreaming blog.




Also linking to the Fall Festival at The DIY Show Off. Another fabulous blog with so many creative bloggers.


And finally... Sister Sister Sunday @ Kuzak's Closet So many delicious things on this blog.

Sister Sister Sunday

Remember... Keep it simple, keep it crafty, keep it frugal, keep it fabulous, & keep it fun!

A Shower of Blessings...

A few weeks back, I posted 2 tutorials related to a baby shower a couple of us threw for our dear friend, Emily. She is having a boy. We kept it simple and even made the food ourselves {OK, Suzi made most of the food as that is where her giftedness is ~ she is a gourmet goddess in my eyes ;)}. I made the decor and Denise made sure we had the clubhouse secured and helped us both with the set-up. So fun!

Here are some follow-up pictures related to this post , "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star...Do You Know How Loved You Are?" Here are the altered canvases I made with sweet Noah's monogram and nursery colors...






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Here are the vase wraps and "B-a-b-y B-o-y Lollipops" in the vases with greenery...









Special thanks to my sister, Kathi, for letting me borrow her tiered server. It was originally gold as she bought it in the 90s, but I sprayed it Titanium Silver for her and for the shower, just wrapped blue ribbon around it and added the white bow. The tablecloths were queen size Ralph Lauren bed sheets in chambray and chambray and white stripe that hubby had on hand from his bachelor days. They look fresh ironed on on the tables. All of the serving pieces were items Suzi and I had on hand. Blue plates were from my wedding so of course, they work for a boy's baby shower. :)

We had a yard sign printed for the entrance to the clubhouse on the left side...



And on the right side, "Lollipops" that spell out Noah's name with scripture stickers on the bottom of each letter...



Vases that were on the drink table holding lemons and sweetener for the coffee spelling out "b-a-b-y". I also had 2 square candles infront of the centerpiece on the food table with the same design but on blue vellum and they spelled, "n-o-a-h".



I found this idea out in blogland on How Does She. The guest blogger is Heidi and the Tutorial is featured on this link. These paper pom-poms are made from mini and standard cupcake liners. They reminded me of some of the lamps at IKEA and Anthropologie...



Here is one pictured here:


and another one pictured here:


Thanks for spending time with me reminiscing about the shower and fun DIY projects. All photos, unless linked elsewhere, are mine. I don't mind you linking or referencing to them, but please give credit where credit is due. Thanks!

Remember, keep it simple, keep it crafty, keep it lovely, and keep it fun!