Tomato Cage Trees

I found an idea on Pinterest (originally from Lucy Designs) that I wanted to try out. But, since she doesn't have a tutorial, I thought I'd explain a few things about it that I was wondering as I went into this project.





What you need:
2 urns/pots
2 tomato cages (these were 56 inches from tip to end)
Garland (for my size of cage it took 6 of the 9 foot garlands, or 54 feet, for each tree)
Lights (I used two 100 light (24 foot) strings per tree)

The total height of my finished trees is 67 inches. As I was buying the tomato cages (yup, they do still have some at Home Depot) I checked the fit of the cages to the pots and it was perfect to sit in there as they were. They are not in any way secured to the pots and can lift right out. I love this because it means I can store the trees and use the pots throughout the year and when the plants die in the fall I can just set the trees over the top of the pot and into the rim.



Since I just bought these pots, the inside is still completely empty. If you live in a windier area I would suggest filling it with dirt or rocks. You could also stick a piece of pipe into the filler to tie the cage to so it wouldn't blow away. Luckily my entry way is protected so I didn't have to do this, despite the amount of wind we get here.



At the top I used a small piece of wire (twist ties would probably work as well) to secure the ends together.



Two people have come over so far and neither noticed it wasn't an actual tree till I told them, though it helps that the wreath is real so the front porch smells like trees. :) I may still put some ribbon on them, not sure, but for now I think they look really pretty.



I also really like the nighttime look of the cage and lights without garland, though I'm not sure how pretty it would be in the daytime. (See it here)

How To: Fall Wreath

I made a couple wreaths for Fall/Halloween this year. I decided to do a fall/not-holiday-specific mantle and make a Halloween wreath for the front door. Since the fireplace decorations aren't holiday themed they can stay up till I break out the Christmas stuff later in the year and I won't have to fuss with changes.

One grapevine wreath and a few dollar store picks like the one pictured below and I got started on the first wreath.



I pulled all of the leaves off the picks and started fitting them into the wreath. I DID NOT use any glue or adhesive for this. Since the wreath is made of vine there are a million little places to tuck in stems that they'll stay put and if I reuse the wreath for something else later I didn't want it all gummed up.



Here's a closeup of a way to tuck the leaves into the wreath if you want to avoid adhesives.



I have the harvest sign from last year and I thought it might be cute in the middle. Clear string would have been preferable but I used what was available and tried to keep any yarn colors in fall hues. The pumpkins and gourds are also dollar store additions. To attach them without glue I stuck them in the back with unfolded paper clips, stuck the paper clips into the wreath, and folded the back of the clips behind the wreath to make them stay.





Other things to make up the mantle:
Erin made the sunflowers from construction paper
The lanterns are from IKEA
The mice are Charming Tails (circa 2001 ish?)
The tree is made from a branch I found while hiking and repurposed from this project
And the In This House sign was a project here

Past Halloweens Recap

Fall officially begins on Friday which means that it's about that time of year again to get the Halloween stuff out! This year someone else is hosting the party but we'll have quite a few kids over here so I'll be decorating again. Anyway, here are a few things I did in years past and I'll be posting some new things over the next month.

The pumpkin pendant:



Adhesive felt and pipe cleaner pumpkins. We'll be doing them again this year so I can't wait to see what creative ideas the kids think to add this time (the hands were one of their ideas last year).



From the party decorations post:

A spider webbed ceiling. This will be repeated but moved to another room and changed up a bit.



The spookified chandelier. Another one I'll repeat but add onto.



Bats over the moon and cheesecloth webs. I can't find the bats :( But I'm sure we'll have some fun out there.



Are you getting ready for Halloween soon? What have been some of your favorite decorations either at home or elsewhere?

Kid Project: Super Simple 3D Stars

This weekend the kids and I played with craft punches a whole lot while I was working on the mantle decorations. One of the things I showed them was how to make 3D stars. I think this would be really fun to make a mobile with or to use decorative holiday paper and make 'em really big. I'm thinking something sparkly and white made from full size sheets (like 5 or 6 sides instead of just 3?) could be really pretty on a Christmas tree top, too. In this case, we found a really squirly branch while we were hiking and turned it into a mini-tree.

The materials are simple. Paper, scissors, thread, glue and an optional craft punch. Any shape will do as long as it's symmetrical.



Cut out your shapes and fold them in half.



Glue one half of the first two pieces together:



Put glue on the other halves and stick some thread in the middle for hanging:



Then cover with the third piece.



And that's it. I like this one because once the kids master the basic idea there are so many places they can take it from there, like making larger ones and punching smaller shapes out of it when it's done, putting pictures on the outside so you see new images as it turns, using more than 3 pages for more intricate designs, layering the paper, adding beads, etc. Have fun!

A Little Love

I got in a bit of a creative mood this week and here's what I have to show for it so far:

Felt owls. Since the owls are actually attached to the front of the frames I can trade the background fabric out all year round. For now a spot of pink for Valentines seemed appropriate (while keeping it a little subtle because I don't want to go too overboard on hearts around here).



And the silhouette machine was just begging to be played with so I chopped up some wood to make holiday blocks. I figure after valentine's day is over I can use the backside to put together some Patty's day love.



I also have a puzzle bookcase assembled in the garage and awaiting paint and I'm tinkering with ideas for a murphy bed again. Also, since Joe decided that he is "too big" for little boy rooms (and "little kid" everything, really) I have him helping to pick out something suitable for an almost 10 year old. He is really digging navy blue for the walls but he keeps waffling to orange and back again so I guess we'll see. Should be fun!

Halloween Party Ready

We're having a party this weekend for the neighborhood and I'm getting the decorations wrapped up. This year I have seen some fantastic ideas on the web and I couldn't wait to try them out.

Crafts and Sutch has a great tutorial for how to put a spiderweb on your wall (found via Be Different...Act Normal). I found a cool spider in all the halloween stuff and decided to try it out on the ceiling.



Since a lot of the people who will be here are still strangers to me (lots of new people in the neighborhood) I worried a bit about people getting into the movies and books. So I covered all of those shelves in spiderwebs to keep busy hands out. The lower shelves aren't covered yet so the kids can get their movies during the week and I will get them covered over the morning of the party.



Cheesecloth and sticky backed bats covered the lights in the great room for a little atmosphere. We'll set up the potluck here. The artwork on the wall is my son's. He really wanted to contribute to the decorations.



The banisters and doorways were covered in cheesecloth and decorated with a few plastic spiders. I found a great idea for bats from Made (also via Be Different). The template came from Country Living.







Even the teddy bear wanted in on the dress-up party.



The pendant lights got a little holiday with some treat buckets that I had left over from a few years ago.



Tonight we'll start baking and cooking and getting the rest of the party ready to go for the weekend. Baking will be Joe's favorite part. Anything with sugar.

No Mess (but still cute) Pumpkins

I love decorated pumpkins. I HATE gutting them. Eewww, gross, never liked it as a kid and my own kids hate it now. But decorated pumpkins are fun!

Enter adhesive felt.

I started doing this last year and it worked so beautifully. The kids can draw whatever picture they want (on regular or construction paper) to decorate their pumpkin face and cut the shape out.



Then you turn it face down on the adhesive backing and trace with a marker.



Cut out your shape, remove the backing and stick on the pumpkin. You can layer felt on top of felt which is what I did here for the eyes and later for the tongue and teeth.



If you want to add hair to your pumpkin you can make it really cute with pipe cleaners. Just twist them around the stem of the pumpkin...



And style to suit



You can add ears with the felt too. Just make a little tab that will stick to the pumpkin in front of the ear (only remove the backing from the tab, not from the actual ear)...



And place a tab on the back to help it stick out



Want arms? My daughter came up with this idea and I really love it. Shape your hands out of pipe cleaners and use a piece of the felt to hold it on. I found it helps if you wrap it around the felt a bit to help it stay up.



Shape your arms and say hi!



And voila! When the kids are done you will have some cute little pumpkin families!





And after Halloween? Since you didn't actually carve these, the felt can be peeled off after the holiday and you have pretty pumpkins still for fall that didn't rot because they weren't cut. Last year these lasted past Thanksgiving and I bought them 3 weeks before Halloween. I think you could probably even keep the felt and stick it on a piece of wax paper if you have a face you want to reuse next year.

Here's a link to the pumpkins from last year.

Stitching Hearts

Well, Valentine's will be here in about 5 weeks. Since my family is still considering a Valentine Christmas (or Valentmas?) then I am starting some ornaments to make a heart tree. I realize that it's just barely January but I don't want to wait until too close to make them since they can take a while and for a tree that size I'd need a lot.

So yesterday I started checking out possibilities and found this tutorial for making felt ornaments. The only thing I'm changing is that I'm not going to stuff mine as I much prefer the look of them when they're flat. The multiple layers are adding plenty of depth on their own already.



It would of course be impossible to try to do a project without one of the cats wanting to play, so Pixel is jumping in this morning to help by trying to eat the heart ornaments. Thank you, Pixel.



Felt hearts are a really good project for sitting in front of the TV or while waiting on dinner to finish. And I'm finding it pretty easy to stick a couple in my purse so this could be done while people watching, too (one of my favorite things).