DIY Wall Hanging, a quick and easy project

Today I want to share with you a quick and easy project that I made for a Christmas gift. I can't believe we are in November already, it feels like we just had Christmas! The reality is we have only about 8 weeks left! I have 8 grandchildren that I need to buy presents for so I've had to put on my thinking cap. Their ages range from 21 down to 18 months.  I have a few members in my family that love homemade gifts especially my Ellie who is 18 because they know that a lot of love goes into making them. She has an all white bedroom and every time I visit she has  changed something. At the moment she has shells hanging on twine, so she loves decorating with natural elements.  I've been seeing blues used in autumn decor instead of the traditional autumn colours and I really love it. Maybe because blue is my favourite colour! So this is for Ellie, I hope she likes it!  OK let's start:

Supplies needed: 

. Hessian (burlap) cut to size

. A small branch

. Craft Paint

. Paintbrush

. Glue

.  Embroidery thread

. Pearls

. Twine 

Instructions:

Firstly cut your hessian to the size you require. Mine is 1 foot long x 8" wide. Next I painted my autumn leaves with blue craft paint.

The branch I used

Pearls and embroidery floss

Once I'd painted all the leaves I glued them onto the hessian. I used a waterproof glue which dries clear because I didn't want any glue to show where it wasn't meant to show. I am very messy!.  Then I applied my pearls to the hessian, again using the same glue. I already had these in my stash. They are flat bottomed and have glue already on them but I added mine as well to make sure they were well and truly stuck on!

After all the glue had dried I attached my branch to the hessian with embroidery floss in the same beautiful blue shade as my leaves.

 Once I'd sewn on all the embroidery floss I wrapped twine to each end, tied it and it was ready to hang

Here is the finished product! Quite rustic. What do you think? Do you think Ellie will like it? I'll have to wait and see, I'll let you know after Christmas.  
  

Fall Decorations, Three easy projects

I've been looking at Pinterest and Instagram and seeing all the beautiful fall decorations. The thing is where I live it is spring! I haven't seen any spring decor only autumn or fall as some call it.
I decided to join the throng and make my own fall decor. I suppose the way the weather has been worldwide, heat waves in autumn, hot winters in Oz, floods and fires, anything goes!

I don't have any pumpkins, real or fake, we don't decorate for our seasons as much as our northern counterparts, so I'm using colourful autumn leaves to decorate. I must admit I love the velvet pumpkins. I went to a fabric shop to buy some velvet for another project and because of our hot climate they don't stock velvet! I was not impressed to say the least! I will probably order some online.

I have three quick and easy fall decorations to share that I made using these leaves. These are the supplies you will need to make them:

Finished wreath

               For Wreath

A Packet of fall leaves from the $2 shop
Hessian (burlap) roll
Twine
Hot glue gun or similar
Scissors  

               For Branches with fall leaves

Branches. I got mine from a tree in my backyard

Leaves (as above)

Glue or hot glue gun 

               For Welcome Sign

A piece of scrap wood

Leaves (as above)

Glue

Stenciled or stick on letters

Roll of hessian ribbon or wire

White homemade chalk paint

For the wreath I started with an old plastic covered wire coat hanger bent to the shape that I wanted. I used the hessian roll to wind around the coat hanger

Plastic covered wire coat hanger

Starting to roll hessian (burlap) onto hanger

I had already made a garland with twine and I glued the leaves onto the twine as shown 

Leaf garland

I then wrapped this garland around the wreath but you can simply glue the leaves straight onto the hessian wrapped coat hanger. 

As you can see above these are the branches I cut from a tree in my backyard and using the same leaves I glued them onto the branch where I wanted them.

Branches with glued on leaves

 The welcome sign was made using a scrap piece of wood to which I gave a very light coat of white chalk paint. I then wrapped a 2" piece of hessian (burlap) around one end and glued the leaves to it. I had a piece of ribbon left over from another project and I simply nailed it onto the back of the timber. I nailed it a part of the way through and bent the last bit of the nail over with the hammer. I did this because I didn't want it to come all the way through the piece of wood and hammered it over so it wouldn't stick out.

Welcome sign

Sorry this picture is sideways and I know a few of the letters are wonky but I quite like it like that.

I hope you enjoyed the fall decorations, I had fun doing them and they were really easy to do. If you make any I would love to see them. Have a great day  

2 DIY Signs From Recycled Timber

Hi friends, I'm really excited to show you my two diy signs that I made from recycled timber. I love recycled wood or reclaimed wood because no trees had to be cut down again depleting our natural habitats. Anyway I decided to make two because there are two things that I love and that's the beach and vintage style.

Here in Australia it's winter. I do not like winter! I'm seriously waiting for spring to feel alive again! Therefore my first sign is about the beach.

Even if it isn't summer I can at least create something that is summery.

I started off by painting the wood a green/blue colour. While I was waiting for that to dry I picked out some shells from my collection to decorate the sign with.

I decided to stencil the word beach with an old stencil I had. I really need to get some new stencils with larger letters.

When I'd completed the stenciling I added some rope to the back with cement glue. This glue sticks anything! I believe it's one of Martha Stewart's secrets, so how could I go wrong?!

One sign completed!

Beach style sign

The next sign I painted in a creamy white chalk paint which I made adding a small amount of ochre to white.

I had some faux flowers already in my supplies. They're a creamy colour with green leaves and matched perfectly.

For this sign I decided to write welcome and hang it just inside my doorway. I actually ended up using some stick on letters that I had. Roll on new stencils!

Instead of rope I used a type of hessian (burlap) ribbon. I felt it was more in keeping with the vintage style that I was after  

Vintage style sign

If you have any questions or comments I would love to hear from you. Have a wonderful week, until next time