Looking for a simple, quick, inexpensive fall craft? How about making these adorable pumpkins. All you need is 3 toilet paper rolls (per pumpkin), paint and scissors.
First cut one TP roll in half-ish to make the center. You will want it to be a little smaller than half. You will use the other half of that roll to make the stem & vine.
Paint the larger half brown & green to use as the stem & vine.
Paint the 2 whole rolls & the 1/2 roll orange. These will make the body of the pumpkin.
Cut the two rolls up the middle, then in small strips. (about 1/4″ thick) If they are much thicker than that they don’t stay on as well.
The strips will naturally curl. After I cut them, I curled them around my finger to help them keep their shape. Then I hooked them around the 1/2 roll to form the pumpkin.
Then I curled up the stem and squeezed it in the middle along with some curly green for vines. That’s it! I told you it was simple.
Didn’t they turn out cute?
Looking for some fun fall crafts? Have you ever made stamps using apples, potatoes, or baby feet?! I had so much fun with these projects.
Here are the homemade stamps that we made this week:
Apple Pumpkin Stamp
I saw this idea on Pintrest and had to try it. It was so simple! This is a great draft to do with kids (Conner is a little young to appreciate it, but my neighbors 3 year old loved it).
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This is another great project for the family. The best part about a potato stamp is that you can cut out whatever shape you would like. I chose to create a leaf stamp to decorate for fall.
It is pretty basic, but here is the process:
First cut the pumpkin in half.
Then sketch out your stamp outline. Use a knife to cut out the outline. I made my cuts about 1/4″ deep.
Then cut down around the outside of the pumpkin the same depth as your outline (1/4″ for me).
I used a toothpick and some brown paint to add a few details to my leaf.
Then I glued my leaf to a fall-ish piece of scrapbook paper and put it in one of my garage sale picture frames.
I love inexpensive, homemade decorations. See more of my homemade stamp ideas.
Have you ever made a potato stamp?
I saw this idea first on Pinterest. This would be a great fall project for kids.
All it takes is an apple, orange paint, and paper.
I used a sponge brush to put the paint on the apple, but you could also dip the apple in paint.
Make sure the apple has a good layer of paint on, and stamp it on the paper. (I used the sponge brush to fill any big holes).
That is it. Pretty simple. I used a toothpick to add a brown stem and green vines to my pumpkins.
Then I titled it “The Pumpkin Patch” and put it in one of my garage sale frames.
How is that for apple artwork?
I mentioned last week that I have been trying to decorate our apartment without spending a lot of money. I found a mail organizer project on Pinterest and fell in love. I made mine quite a bit different so that it would work with the materials that I had and fit our wall.
We have a phone jack in our kitchen above our counter that was begging to be covered up. (We don’t have a home phone) This is also the counter that tends to get a pile of notes & mail on it.
A cute mail organizer would solve both of these problems.
Materials:
8.5″x 24″ board (1/4″ thick)
(2) 9″x 18″ pieces of material
(2) 2″x18″ pieces of material
(2) 7″x11″ pieces of cardboard (I cut them from a cereal box)
(3) Pegs (to hang keys)
(2) Metal Label Holders
Paint
Tools:
Paint Brush
Sewing Machine
Hot Glue Gun
Drill & bit
Process:
I had a 1/4″ scrap board. It is 8.5″x24″. I would have preferred a 12″ board, but I used what I had. I painted it barn red to match my EAT sign.
I then went through my mother’s stash of scrap material and picked two coordinating fabrics. (My mom has several boxes of scrap material from past quilts and other projects. She graciously lets me help her put them to use.) This does not take a lot of material. If you don’t have fabric, you could buy 1/4 yard of two fabrics.
First cut the end of the 9″x18″ pieces to have an angle. The top should be about 2″ longer than the bottom.
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Daniel and I moved into a new apartment at the beginning of August. Since then I have been trying to decorate our apartment without spending very much money. Thanks to Pinterest, I have found a lot of fun DIY ideas.
Here was my obstacle. A big, white, bare wall. I had a lot of space to fill up and a small decorating budget.
I saw this fun idea on Make it and Love it (I love that site!). I love the simplicity of using panels; unfortunately, I did not have the budget to buy the cute fabric and canvas. I did have a lot of empty moving boxes & some cute scrapbook paper. I decided to improvise.
Materials Used:
2 cardboard boxes
electrical tape
scrapbook paper
double sided tape
packing tape
Instructions:
First I cut out (6) 12.5″ sqares from cardboard boxes. We picked these boxes up for free from Walmart for our last move.
Then I went around all of the edges with electrical tape. The purpose of the tape is to cover the rough cardboard edge and give the paper a small black boarder.
I picked 6 coordinating pieces of scrapbook paper. I used a black scrapbook edging ink pad (real name for this?) to blend the edges of the scrapbook paper.
Then I used double sided tape to stick the paper to the cardboard squares. I used 8 little pieces on each square. One for each corner & one in the middle of each side.
I created a triangle to hang the squares from so that they would stick out from the wall about 1 inch. I first used duct tape to fasten the triangle to the board. Once I had hung the boards and made sure they lined up, I secured the triangles with packing tape. Don’t just use duct tape. It will stretch and the squares will sag.
Total this project cost me under $5. I only purchased electrical tape & double sided tape.
I love my simple, inexpensive squares.
Join me next Tuesday for another DIY Decor Idea.
Daniel and I moved into a new apartment at the beginning of August. Since then I have been trying to decorate our apartment without spending very much money. I have tried to take it one wall at a time. Thanks to Pinterest, I have found a lot of fun ideas to try.
A few weeks ago while visiting my parents, I spent some time in their wood shop converting scrap wood into decorations for our apartment. They had an old particle board shelf I used to cut out the word EAT to hang in our dining room.
If you have access to a jig saw, miter saw, and a sander this is a super easy project.
I printed each letter as big as possible on 8.5×11 paper to make a stencil. I used my stencil to trace the letters on the wood shelf.
I used the miter saw (also known as a chop saw) to cut as much as I could of the letters. Then I used the jig saw for the small details. It was much easier to get straight lines on the miter saw than on the jig saw.
Once the letters were cut out I sanded them smooth. Then I painted them red. The whole project took less than an hour, and I love the contrast of the red letters on our boring white walls.
Do you have a favorite DIY decor idea?
Meet Natasha, founder of Saving a Bundle and mother of four rambunctious boys, and LeaDawn writer and new mother of one boy. Raised in a frugal lifestyle we continue the family tradition by cooking from scratch, using money-smart techniques,
living simply, hunting for good deals, have fun with frugal crafts, and use coupons. Join us on our journey as we, two sisters, learn & share ways to live a more frugal lifestyle to reach our common goal to save our families money.