DIY Fall Leaves Place Mat Tutorial

How Festive are these Fall Leaves Place Mats!?

Be sure to watch the how to Video below!

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While shopping at a local retailer for some upcoming projects I saw these really cute place mats and a runner. I was shocked at the price tag on these... I thought $29.99 was a bit too steep and upon closer inspection realized I could make several of these for less than $5. My total out of pocket cost was only three dollars for the two I made and I had left over material.

You'll need:
Roll of draw liner (Dollar Tree)
Bags of Leaves (Dollar Tree)
Something round to trace
Scissors
Hot Glue Gun
Glue Stick

Pen, marker or colored pencil in a contrasting color to you drawer liner.

First, lay out your drawer liner and position your round objects on top to be traced.

Take your chosen writing tool and trace around your round objects.

 Then remove your round objects from the drawer liner and cut out your traced shape.

You should now have a round piece of drawer liner. Take your leaves and separate the different styles and decide how you want to apply them.

Once you've separated your leaves and decided how you want to apply them, you can grab your glue gun and start gluing them on. Make sure your leaves slightly overhang the edge of the drawer liner.

Work your way around layering each new row slightly over the previous so the none of the drawer liner shows through.

Keep gluing in this manner until you've covered the whole drawer liner.

And your done now it's time to enjoy your new place mats!!

DIY Fall Leaves LED Candle Set Tutorial

These LED Fall Candles are so cute!!

Be sure to watch the how to Video below!

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So I've seen a few of these LED Candle sets (minus the tray) when I've been out and about and I thought they were really cute. I just didn't want to spend 15+ dollars on them. So I wracked my brain trying to figure out how to create my own. The only part I really struggled with was the leaves, because I wanted to do this project for fewer than $10 including the tray. Well, I have a leaf mold I had gotten from Michael's and was like "hey! What if I put hot glue in them? I wonder if that'll work?" Well it did!! So not including the stuff I already had, I spent less than $7 on these.

You'll need:

3 LED Candles (Dollar Tree)
Burlap Ribbon (Dollar Tree)
Twine (Dollar Tree)
Metallic Craft Paints (Michael's)
Silicone Leaf Mold (Michael's)
Hot Glue Gun
Glue Sticks
Paint Brush
Metal Tray (Dollar Tree)
Spray Paint

First we're going to paint the tray and set it off to the side to dry.

Then grab the silicone leaf mold and your glue gun. Make sure your glue gun is set to high. Then fill the bottom of the leaf mold with hot glue. Don't fill to the top, fill just enough to cover the leaf impression on the bottom and set aside to dry.

After removing the LED candles from their packaging and removing any pull tabs for their batteries, you should turn them on to make sure they work before beginning the next part.

Once you know your LED candles work, it's time to wrap them with the burlap ribbon. Wrap the ribbon around the candle to determine how long it should be, then grab your scissors and cut your ribbon to size. Your ribbon should just slightly overlap.

Then run a bead of glue from your glue gun down the side of your candle. Lay the very edge of one end of your ribbon along your glue line and wrap the ribbon around until both ends meet and carefully press down. The hot glue will seep through the burlap ribbon and grab both ends but the glue can still be very hot so be careful not to burn yourself!

Now it's time to de-mold your leaves from your leaf mold. This is very easy to do. You just lightly push up on the bottom of the mold until you leaf pops out. You may have to clean the edges of your leaves up a bit with a pair of scissors.

It’s time to paint your leaves. You can spray paint them if you would prefer, I chose to paint mine with a brush. Don't forget to get the sides and back of each leaf. I did two coats on each.

Then wrap some twine around each candle and tie a bow. I wrapped the twine around mine twice. You can use your hot glue gun to make sure the bow stays where you want it.

Once the paint on your leaves is dry you can then glue them to the candles using your glue gun.

Finally, set your candles in the tray and find it it's me home amongst your fall decor!

DIY Fall Bucket Vase Floral Tutorial

Welcome to the 2017 Falling into Autumn Series

Be sure to watch the Tutorial Video below!

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It's Autumn here in the Northern Hemisphere and almost Thanksgiving!! So what are you thankful for? We're thankful for family, friends, and slightly cooler weather (Florida Falls can still be a little warm). This is our second Fall and Thanksgiving in this house so, I still have a few "empty" spaces to fill with some Fall goodness!

Our first project in our 2017 Falling into Autumn Series is this beautiful metal bucket vase I made using items from the Dollar Tree, Hobby Lobby and items I already had just laying around. All the Fall florals used in this project I got for 40% off at Hobby Lobby.

You'll Need:Metal Bucket Vase (Dollar Tree)
Floral Form (Dollar Tree)
Contact Paper (Dollar Tree)
Fall Florals (Hobby Lobby)
Hot Glue Gun
Glue Sticks
Scissors
Exacto Knife
Wire Snippers
Printer
Masking Tape
Spray Paint
Something heavy to weigh down the vase

I started by cutting a piece of contact paper from some leftover I had lying around. It needs to be cut big enough to be able to run through your printer. I then used my Microsoft Publishing program to create the word Fall and selected my font. I then flipped the writing to print to the back side of the contact paper.

I then put the contact paper into my printer like you would a piece of paper. Because it was rolled up it didn't want to lay flat, so I used a ruler and carefully held it in place to help the contact paper lay flat till the printer picked it up and started printing.

Now to cut out your word. I used both scissors and an Exacto knife. When you print the words backwards after you cut out your word and peel the backing off when you adhere it to your project it will be legible again.

After you cut out your word, peel off the backing and apply sticky side down to the vase. When using contact paper for this, it's really easy to take it off a re-adhere it to the project as many times as you need to till you get it just right.

Once I got the word placed just right, I grabbed some masking tape to tape off the roped top part of the vase.

Now time to paint! (I still had some left over from last year’s Fall crafts)

After your vase is fully dry you can remove the masking tape and the contact paper. I used my Exacto knife to help gently lift an edge so I could peel it off.

Then I hot glued my weighted object to the inside bottom of my vase (I tore apart an old weighted balloon holder from the dollar tree.)

Then I inserted the floral foam.

Using your wire snippers trim your Fall florals to size.

Insert your Fall florals into your floral foam and repeat till you get your desired look and fullness.

Now to find it a new home in your Fall decor!!