Fall Leaf Garland

With Halloween over, I've started packing up the ghosts and pumpkins, but still wanted to have a few nice fall decorations around as we get ready to celebrate Thanksgiving.  I had purchased a package of artificial fall leaves awhile ago that I used to spruce up my fall wreath. 

I still had quite a few left and decided to use them to create a leaf garland that I could hang in my dining room.  I had planned on sewing them together, but opted to use hot glue instead.  It worked pretty well and I still get that flowing look of leaves.  I really like they way the garland looks on my china cabinet.  Super easy, but very pretty.

Chocolate Covered Pretzels

Chocolate covered pretzels are my go-to quick party snack to celebrate anything!  They are so easy to make but look so colorful and fun, and the kids LOVE them!

To make these, you need pretzel rods (short or long), chocolate chips (I like milk chocolate), vegetable oil, sprinkles and a wax paper lined cookie sheet.

I start by lining my cookie sheet with wax paper.  Then, I set up a double boiler to melt my chocolate chips.  I add a tablespoon of vegetable oil to the melting chocolate to help it adhere to the pretzels better.

Once the chocolate is melted, I spoon it onto the pretzels, leaving a small amount of the pretzel uncovered for holding.

Then, I hold the pretzel over an empty bowl and shake some sprinkles on (the bowl will catch the extra sprinkles).  After the pretzel stick is covered well in sprinkles, I lay it on the wax covered cookie sheet. 

After all the pretzels are done, I put the cookie sheet in the refrigerator over night to set.  If you need these right away, you could probably let them set for an hour or two in the refrigerator. 

If serving at a class party, I will just lay them out on a plate.  If adding them to goody bags, I slip each pretzel into a pretzel bag for the long pretzel rods or smaller treats bags for the shorter pretzel rods.

Fall Exploration Box

Fall keeps sneaking in and out on us here in Maryland. Two days ago my kids were in shorts and t-shirts and this morning it was pants, long sleeves and jackets! But, the signs of Fall are all around us. So a few weeks ago, we gathered some Fall items to add to our exploration box - a box of items that the kids can explore and observe.

This month our exploration box is all about Fall.  This box was pretty easy to put together because we found almost everything right in our own backyard or at our local garden center.  The Fall exploration box includes leaves, acorns, pinecones, pine needles, chestnuts, walnuts, twigs, corn, corn tassels, small pumpkins, small gourds, and fall grass (sorry not everything is pictured, my little scientists were busy exploring some of them).

The kids also have science journals and magnifying glasses to assist them with their exploring.  It's really fun to see what they do on their own when checking out the exploration box.  In their journals, my daughter did some leaf rubbings and my son drew the items he observed.

Leaf Suncatcher

Here's another fun and easy fall craft you can do with your little one.  For this craft all you need is some clear contact paper, yarn or string, a hole punch, and a collection of fallen leaves.

First, take a little nature walk and collect some leaves.  Try to find leaves that are newly fallen and not dried out. 

Next, cut a long rectangle from the contact paper.

Then, peel off the backing to half of the contact paper and start arranging your leaves on the sticky side.

When you are finished, peel off the rest of the backing and fold the contact paper over, sticky side to sticky side. 

Decide how you would like to hang your leaf suncatcher and use the hole punch to punch two holes at the top.  String through a length of yarn or string and tie a knot.  Then hang in the window for all to see!

Sweater Vase

Remember I made that twine vase to pretty up one of my many plain glass vases?  Well, I still have a few plain glass vases and decided to pretty up another one!

This time, I used an old cable knit sweater.  This sweater of mine had been totally spent, just didn't fit well anymore (after a dryer incident), and had a lot of pilling.  But, it was too cute to just throw away, so I decided to repurpose it.

So, I cut off one of the sleeves, slipped it over the vase, and gave my vase a new look!  I used a little spray adhesive to keep the sweater in place and trimmed it up along the bottom.  This was so simple to create and this vase will add a nice textured look to my fall and winter decorations.

Leaf Tokens

My kids are big nature collectors, so Fall is one of their favorite seasons for this reason alone.  Unfortunately, leaves are one of those items that just don't keep very well.  So, when I saw an idea in Family Fun magazine to make leaf impressions in clay, I knew they would love it!

We started off by collecting leaves in different sizes and shapes.  The kids rolled out small portions of clay, and placed a leaf (right side up) onto the clay.

Using the rolling pin, the kids gentle pressed the leaf into the clay.

And, using the stem, gently pulled the leaf off the clay, leaving a really neat impression!  My son especially loved this because they reminded him of fossils.  This was a really easy, fun and inexpensive craft to do.  Hope you'll give it a try!

Fall Wreath

I made my Fall wreath a few years ago and thought that it turned out really well.  I used a grapevine wreath as the base, then added a variety of Fall picks like fruit, leaves and berries.  Then I added a harvest colored ribbon for hanging and that was it.  I got lots of compliments on how nice it looked.  But, as I brought my wreath out of our basement storage, I thought it looked a little drab and bare this year.

Fortunately, I had some decorative touches on hand that I had purchased the year before for another project (that I never got around to) that would work perfectly to spruce up my wreath.  So, with my trusty glue gun and some bright sunflowers and leaves, my drab wreath looks much more refreshed and ready to take on this season of color!

Countdown to Candy

I saw this adorable countdown calendar over at How Does She and knew I would have to give this a try!  We have advent and countdown type calendars at Christmastime, but I just never thought to do something for Halloween.  I knew the kids would love it!

So, with my hubby's help (and awesome woodworking skills) I had him cut me a base and two cubes from some of his scrap wood.

Next, I used acrylic paint to paint the wood.  I chose purple for the cubes and orange for the base.

Next, I used some scrap Halloween paper to cut the squares that would cover the cubes.

Then, I put a layer of Mod Podge on the cubes and arranged the paper squares.

I added adhesive vinyl numbers to each cube to do the counting-down.

I also decided to cover the base with some Halloween scrapbooking paper as well, and added vinyl letters to spell "Countdown to Candy."

I sat this on a shelf in our living room with a cute little spider we got from Hallmark.

A big thank you to How Does She for sharing such a fabulous idea!  My kids love it so much I'm sure they'll be fighting over whose turn it is to change the numbers (they were fighting over who would do it today)!  Only 29 more days!

Twine Vase

Sorry for the delay in craftiness!  With school starting, we've been working on getting back into our routines.  Then, the dreaded head cold hit our house, and we're still recovering.  But, now I'm back and ready to share a few fun crafts with you!

With Fall right around the corner, I'm eager to start pulling out my fall decorations and taking the time to create a few new ones.  I have a really pretty, but simple collection of fall foilage I like to display in a vase.  I have a bunch of plain glass vases to use, but was trying to think of a way to pretty them up a bit.

Then I came across a roll of twine in our junk drawer. We used to use it to tie up our newspaper for recycling, but it's just been sitting in the drawer unused. I can put it to good use! Plain vase + twine = pretty vase!

To get started, I cleaned and dried my vase and used a piece of large cardboard as my work surface.  I decided the easiest way to adhere the twine to the vase was with my glue gun.  My glue gun has two settings, and because I was working with glass I chose the lower setting.

I started at the bottom of the vase, gluing the twine around the surface.  I used the glue to cover continuously for the first 2-3 layers just to be sure things stayed in place.

After I got the first few layers complete I continued to wrap the twine around the vase, but now gluing every 2 inches or so.  At the end, I used a larger twine (sissal) to accent the top and bottom of the vase.  This was a very tedious task, taking me two days to complete.  I burned my fingers plenty of times too, but I got just the look I was going for.

I love the rustic look to the vase!  Not only will it work perfectly for Fall, but it will definitely blend in to our country-style home.

   

Sharing this fun fall project at some awesome craft blogs:

Kuzak's Closet

Under the Table and Dreaming

I Heart Naptime

Creative Jewish Mom