October’fest of Fun – craft highlights

Yesterday’s theme was “fall/Halloween” crafts (party is open for a week!). Did you link up? Here are some fun crafts from my fellow October’fest of Fun hostesses:

Kristin from My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia shared her bath salt pumpkins

sparkly bath salt pumpkins

and bling pumpkin

bling pumpkin

Debbie from DebbieDoo’s shared her adorable DIY fall sign

DIY fall owl sign

Shannon from Fox Hollow Cottage has a great tutorial for painted distressed glass vases

distressed painted glass vases

The fun continues today!

octoberfest of fun link party

Shannon from Fox Hollow Cottage is hosting the “fall/Halloween” mantel event. I love her spooky Gothic haunted Halloween mantel. Need some mantel decorating ideas? Check out the festive links!

gothic halloween mantel at fox hollow cottage

October’fest of Fun! {Theme: Fall Crafts}

Welcome, DIY friends! In lieu of the regularly scheduled DIY Fall Festival this week, I’m super excited to be kicking off and hosting the October’fest of Fun with some of my blog friends! Today’s theme is “crafts”. All fall crafts, including spooky!
DIY Halloween Nevermore Tree
I decorate one area for Halloween every year, one small fun Halloween vignette. This year, I’m bringing back my “nevermore” tree that I made a few years ago. I swapped out the container, added a few more crows. Here are some tips on how I made mine for making your own:
Materials:
  • Vase, container, urn. I used glass this time but any container for holding small branches works. A few years ago, I used an old thrift store vase and spray painted it black…

DIY Halloween decor

  • Small branch (desired size that fits your container). Choose one that has several branch-offs to look more like a tree.
  • Black spray paint
  • Styrofoam cone
  • Handful of dry moss. Other options: shredded newspaper, crinkled paper
  • Dollar Store accessories: faux crows, plastic spiders, cotton spider webbing, ribbon
  • Optional: low temp hot glue
Tutorial:DIY nevermore tree tutorial
1. I started by spraying my branch black and adding a touch of black to my dried moss and let them dry.
2. Because I used a glass container, I lined it with a scrap piece of dropcloth.
3. Paper, newspaper, moss would also work.
4. Using the bottom of my tree branch, I poked a hole into the circular side of my cone. Insert the Styrofoam cone into container with the circular side/hole facing up. You can secure your foam to the container. I didn’t.
5. Insert the branch into the Styrofoam hole. Secure with hot glue if needed.
6. Cover styrofoam with dried moss, crinkled paper or shredded paper. Glue into place if desired.
7.  8.  9. ACCESSORIZE: I strung more dried moss and spider webs to my branches (drag the spider webbing). Attach crows. I used black twist ties to attach some of my crows, others are just propped on branches. I did use hot glue to attach a few plastic spiders and added a couple of snips of sheer ribbon here and there for a little added whimsy.
Stand back and admire!
DIY Halloween Nevermore Tree
Do you decorate for Halloween? Any fun fall crafts to share?
  • Note: Today’s theme is “crafts” – Fall or Halloween crafts only please {ALL FALL DIY FALL FESTIVAL resumes next Wed.}
  • Please link back using the button below or permalink to this post. Thanks!
DIY Showoff
<div align="center"><a href="https://diyshowoff.com/" title="DIY Showoff"><img src="https://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff107/smnf/Octoberfestoffunbuttonsidebarsize205x_zps2e9f4157.png" alt="DIY Showoff" style="border:none;" /></a></div>



Don’t forget to visit these blog friends this week:
Thursday: Link up your fall mantels with Shannon @ Fox Hollow Cottage

Friday: Share your fall tablescapes with Kristin @ My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Saturday: Debbie @ Debbiedoo’s – share your fall home tour!
OneCreativeMommy.com

Countdown to Fall Party!!!

There’s no way to deny that summer is officially over any longer. With shorter days, crisp mornings and cooler evenings, I’ve been wearing sweaters, boots and snuggling under fuzzy throws. We’re still trying to hold off on setting the thermostat to “heat”…it feels too early! But, I’m warming up to the idea of lighting spiced candles and making home more cozy. Once I unburied the dining room this week, I started a little autumn decorating {it’s the only room I really decorate for fall}

autumn mantle

I am so excited to be hosting the Countdown to Fall linky party today! It’s my turn! I’m having so much fun joining my friends from Domestically SpeakingSand & Sisal and It’s So Very Cheri as we celebrate all things fall! {See their projects at the bottom of this post.} And I took a little break from apartment renovating and decorating. I even cleaned up my dining room for your visit today. Welcome! Well, at least what shows in the pictures. Shhh – Don’t tell. 

Countdown to Fall linky party

I was ready to add some rich color to our dining room for the autumn season. So I started with painting a fall leaf onto an old cork board. It still has the pin marks and scars from previous hanging. Anyone else find imperfection charming? Now it’s dark teal, rich red with coppers and golds…”warmth”.

red and teal fall mantle

Obviously I’m not an artist. DIY skills and creativity do not = artistic talent for me. Mr. DIY loves the “lion fish” I painted. What?! Okay, I have to agree that as a leaf, it’s a little sad and after a Google image inquiry, it does sort of resemble a lion fish.

my leaf painting…

teal red fall mantle

lion fish…

red lion fish

But, you know what? We embrace imperfection around here and I love the colors. Besides…it’s art. Unique. One of a kind. It’s precious, right? {you can lie if you feel you need to answer that. lol!} I guarantee no one else has a painting of a leaf from a lion fish tree…I like being different. 🙂 

red teal fall mantle

I’m still playing with it all and next week, you can bet it will all look different but the colors, the theme and that lion fish leaf painting are staying. I do love to rearrange though.

red teal fall decorating

Don’t these colors look amazing together?

red teal orange fall mantel

Materials: “etc.” was a clearance Target find earlier this year, the red and aqua vases are from JoAnns, the orange silk Chinese lanterns in the aqua vase were from Michael’s a few years ago, the silver dollar branches in the red vase are from our yard, the old turquoise insulator turned votive holder is a thrifted treasure, the mini chalkboard is a Shaw Floors/HGTV Home design challenge souvenir, the metallic faux pumpkins are from my long time fall collection. 

Still loving my pallet insert for our faux fireplace too…

red turquoise fall mantle

If you’d like to see more, I shared some more of my fall decorating earlier this week at the DIY Fall Festival…

decorating for fall

Fall Party

~*~*~*~

We all would love for you to join the fun, if you haven’t already. We want to see your fall décor, fall crafts, delish fall recipes, fall traditions… anything that is fall related ! There are currently over 200 fall goodies to inspire you!

Please place the Countdown to Fall button in your post with a link back to this page so your readers can find the party too!



MaryAnn from Domestically Speakingfollow shared her fun fall craft when she kicked off the Countdown to Fall party a few weeks ago.

DIY apple art

A special thanks to MaryAnn who organized this fun fall event and for inviting me to participate! The second week, hosted by Kim from Sand & Sisal welcomed us with a festive fall front door…

Fall Front Porch by Sand & Sisal Thumbnail

And last week, Cheri from It’s So Very Cheri baked a delicious autumn recipe for the Countdown to Fall get-together. Delicious!

pumpkin brownies