Happy Fall Y'all

I needed something to hang on the front door for fall...  I decided to make a burlap pumpkin.

First I took a piece of freezer paper and drew the shape of the pumpkin I wanted and cut it out.  I pinned it on a double layer of burlap so I would cut out both the front and the back piece at the same time, and cut out the burlap pumpkin.



I then took orange acrylic paint and watered it down to where it was just water consistency. I misted the burlap with  water so it would be easier to paint.  I wanted it to just stain the burlap.

I painted both sides. Don't for get to flip the second one over so the stem faces the opposite direction that way when you sew them together the outside is painted on both pieces of burlap.
I am very impatient when it comes to a project that I am excited about.  I messed up here by not letting the orange paint dry all the way before trying to stencil the letters on. So, when you make yours make sure you let the paint dry....
I cut a stencil of letters out of freezer paper.  Once the Orange paint is dry iron on the stencil.  The freezer paper will peel off once you paint the letters on. I stenciled the letters in brown acrylic paint.

Here is why you let the orange paint dry and DO NOT water down the brown paint or whatever you choose to do the letters in.

The top leg of the W in welcome bled because the orange was wet. So, that was a fail.. Never fear though, I have the other side of the pumpkin.  I decided to cut another freezer paper stencil.

I stenciled this one when it was dry and it worked beautifully.  I also decided to water down the rest of the brown paint and paint the stem. Because I am a southern girl... I decided to change the saying to Happy Fall Y'all!

Once the letters are dry (sorry no pictures of this step) I  pinned the wrong sides together so it all matched.  I also took about a 6 inch piece of jute and made a loop that I pinned in the top of the stem so it would be sewn in as a hanging loop.  I sewed all the way around but left about a 5 inch gap in the bottom where I stuffed it with poly-fil.  I just wanted enough to give it dimension, not to stuff it full.  I then went back and sewed up the bottom.  I added a little jute bow around the top of the stem. 

I think it turned out pretty well.

Linking Up To:

Made By You Monday - Skip to my Lou

Tip Junkie

Take a Look Tuesday - Sugarbeecrafts

Sew Cute Tuesday - creative itch

Smurf-Day (Birthday) Party

This Past Saturday we had a 6th Smurf-day party.  I wanted to share some of it with you. 

This was the cake.  It was made by Cakes by Mom and Me. They always do a beautiful job.  I believe in doing business with those that do business with you.  I embroider their logo on items and in turn I always let them make the birthday cakes...

Now let me tell you about the treats. My original idea came from My Paper Pony. I was supposed to use donut holes cut in half, dipped in red candy melt. Go look at the link above.. They are beautiful!  I am obviously not nearly as talented as the lady that did the marshmallow mushroom pops from this site.  I tried... I really did... but they were hideous! So I threw 40 of them away...  and I kicked myself for waiting until the last minute and at the time I had no backup plan.. 
Ahhh but Saturday morning before the party I came up with an idea.  Here is what I did. (note: they are not as beautiful as the donut hole ones but they worked)
I used the recipe on the back of the Rice Crispy box to make Rice Crispy treats.  I altered the recipe by adding red food coloring to the melted marshmallow mix.  I also used about a cup less rice crispys so they would be nice and red.  Here is how they turned out. I scooped them out using a cookie scoop and flattened them on the bottom by pressing them onto a piece of wax paper.  I allowed them to cool a bit and then pushed white chocolate chips in to make the dots on top(note: if you do this too soon they will melt).  I then pushed a jumbo marshmallow onto the lollipop stick and then added the rice crispy treat to the top.
 I bagged them and tied on a bow so the kids could take them home and the marshmallow bottom wouldn't dry out. 

I then put them in a tray with a Styrofoam insert covered in green moss.  I added some of Savannah's little Smurfs from McD's for a little extra touch ( you can't really see them in the picture)