Craftastic Monday Link Party

Welcome Crafty Friends!  The season is in full swing, so come link up all your latest projects and all things Fall, Halloween & Thanksgiving that you've been creating.  Anything made by you is welcome: decor, DIY, recipes, sewing, knitting, crafts, etc.

 

Last week I shared my Burlap Wire Pumpkin Wreath Tutorial and how to do Layered Ribbon Accents to save $ on supplies:

Bonus Feature:   

 This week's feature is this adorable pumpkin costume that reader Emily O.  made for her 6 yr old, who just loves wearing it:

She used my DIY Cuddly Pumpkin Costume Tutorial to make it:

If you've made something with one of my tutorials (especially any costumes!), send a photo to cheryl@sewcando.com and I'll be happy to feature it here.

And if you're looking for DIY costume or Halloween ideas, check out my left sidebar for some inspiration and easy how-to's:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Here are this week's Craftastic Picks:

My Home of All Seasons showed how to create a gorgeous fall porch:

Pillar Box Blue shared these pretty DIY fabric sunflower denim corsages:

Crafts A La Mode had this cute & easy sounding apple pie baked in an apple recipe:

Healthy Slow Cooking shared this fun green potato soup recipe that I know my kids would love:

Studio 27 turned a pastel plastic dollhouse into a festive Halloween house decoration:

If you're one of this week's features, be sure to grab my Featured On button over on my Buttons Page to share the good news. 

 Want a Chance to 

Be Featured Next Week?  

Link back to the party somewhere on your blog.

I can't feature your post if you don't share the party.

  

Ready to link up your crafty creations?

 

Party rules are simple: 

• As long as it's crafty, and made by you, it's Craftastic (no links to other people's work or to businesses/shops).  
• Add the link to your specific post. Product reviews, plagiarized or sponsored posts for random items will be immediately deleted.  
• Grab my party button & put it on your post, party page or blog somewhere.  If you want the chance to be featured, this is key.  The button code can be found HERE.
• Check out some of the other fabulous links and share some crafty comment love.  We all love getting comments!!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Burlap Wire Pumpkin Wreath With Layered Ribbon Accents

To decorate our front doors this year I made fun burlap pumpkin "wreaths" using some wire pumpkin forms.

They feature lots of festive Halloween designs and a layered ribbon design to add lots of texture and holiday colors:

I looked at a lot of tutorials and techniques done with wire pumpkin forms before I made this.  I wanted the final look to be more tailored than just draping fabric over the form.  I followed a lot of what this video by Crafting Cousins did, but used burlap yardage I cut myself rather than fabric + burlap ribbon, ditched the messy, fume-y E6000 glue and added my own layered ribbon technique for a unique bow accent that could also handle being outdoors.

Materials:

- 1 yd burlap (36"x40")

- 2 wire pumpkin forms

- Various 2.5" wide wired ribbons

- Various 1" wide ribbons

- Satin cut-out trims (mine are from Sugar Pink Boutique)

- Hot glue gun

I want to start out by saying not all burlap or ribbon is equal!

When I gathered the rest of my supplies I first grabbed some rolls of 5.5" wide burlap at the craft store.  Big mistake!  That stuff is really loose weave so you can see right through it.  Unless you're scrunching it up or have something directly behind it, it's too net-like for most projects, so I needed something better.

I found this fantastic burlap sold by the yard on Amazon here.  It has a much tighter weave and a warmer color.  Much more versatile for sure.  It was really reasonably priced and even delivered on a roll so no creases!

I used some basic craft store solids for my "background" ribbons, but added these specialty satin cutout trims to add really nice detail: 

 I bought from Sugar Pink Boutique.  They cut apart without fraying and are puffy so their dimensional element really kicks the finished look up a notch compared to regular ribbons:

  I also got my buffalo check orange & black wire ribbon there.  It has a soft flannel fabric feel too: 

Now, let's make some pretty pumpkins!

To start I cut the following pieces for each of my wreaths:

(4) 17"h x 4.5"w burlap strips for mid-sections

(2) 12"h x 5"w for ends

(1) 17"h x 6"w for central section

  

I started with the center section of the wire form and dabbed some hot glue on the middle of each of the center spokes:

I placed the widest strip over it, making sure there was enough on either side to wrap it around the wires to the back:

With it affixed I worked my way to the ends, running a few inches of glue down the wire...

...pressing it down as I worked.   Doing it this way on either side keeps the burlap taut to have a nice full shape.  I used a silicone finger protector to smooth it, but a pencil or chopstick would work ok too.  

Once I got to the ends, I clipped into the overhanging ends right where the spokes attached to the outer frame:

Then I hot glued the sides around to the back:

Folded the flaps at the top & bottom over and around to the back side and glued them.  

I did the same with the spokes on either side, leaving gaps between like this:

To fill in the remaining mid-sections, I glued along the edges of the wrong sides of the burlap sections I just did, starting at the middle as before:

And placed the remaining 12"h x 5"w pieces onto them, working the same way outward, but from the backside this time:

For the outer end sections, I glued the inner sides the same way, clipped them right at the ends and then pulled the outside edge under the wire....

Then folded them over to the wrong side over the wire and glued in place.  This will cover up all the wire so the burlap pumpkin is good to go.

Time to embellish!

I dabbed a bit of hot glue to the back of each of my satin cutout trims 

and affixed them to some 1 inch wide grosgrain ribbon to  make them really pop and add a firmer body to them:

A lot of tutorials I saw for bow-making use insane amounts of ribbon.  You don't want to waste anything when you use specialty trims, so I have this layering trick for getting the most out of every inch!  I cut each of these "treat" pieces to be about 9 inches:

Then a cut 24 inch long pieces of my wider, basic ribbons:

I centered the smaller strip over the longer ribbon piece and dabbed a dot of hot glue on the back ends of the short piece and stuck it to the longer one.

Then I folded each of the new multi-layered ribbon strips in half:

I stacked them in the order I liked and tied them tight around the middle:

I fanned them out and fluffed up the loops to get them how I wanted:

I tied the bows onto each wreath and added some hot glue onto the stem for extra security:

I added a loop of burlap ribbon tied in a lark's knot to hang them off my door hooks:

And then my pretty pumpkins were door-ready.  I like that they add some seasonal fun, but aren't too busy or over-the-top.  Just the kind of holiday I need right now!  

Happy Halloween!

Hello October Craftastic Monday Link Party

Happy October Crafters!  Come link up all your latest projects and all things Autumn, Halloween (& even Thanksgiving) that you've created.  Anything made by you is welcome: decor, DIY, recipes, sewing, knitting, crafts, etc.

 

Last week our sitcom-like trials & tribulations continued to hamper my crafting.  One squirrel in a cupboard later turned into 3 squirrels in the attic.  Add in a dash of having to fire some hapless contractors and line up a new one to finish the work.  Whew.  Despite the insanity, I've finally got a sweet Halloween craft that's close to being able to share!  Hopefully it'll be good to go in a couple of days.

Bonus Feature:   

 This week's feature is this sweet costume from reader Stella K. over in The Netherlands.  It was part of a new treasure hunt activity at the stately home, Dekema State and she used my dress pattern to match this illustration:

She used my Sleeveless Sunday Tween Girl's Dress FREE Pattern to make it:

If you've made something with one of my tutorials (especially any costumes), send a photo to cheryl@sewcando.com and I'll be happy to feature it here!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Here are this week's Craftastic Picks:

Bird's Party made these easy DIY modern farmhouse wood lanterns:

Life As A LEO Wife shared this cute fall sign made with dollar store goodies:

Cincy Shopper had this yummy caramel apple pie cookie recipe:

Heart, Hearth and Crafting showed how to make these DIY rope baskets:

If you're one of this week's features, be sure to grab my Featured On button over on my Buttons Page to share the good news. 

 Want a Chance to 

Be Featured Next Week?  

Link back to the party somewhere on your blog.

I can't feature your post if you don't share the party.

  

Ready to link up your crafty creations?

 

Party rules are simple: 

• As long as it's crafty, and made by you, it's Craftastic (no links to other people's work or to businesses/shops).  
• Add the link to your specific post. Product reviews, plagiarized or sponsored posts for random items will be immediately deleted.  
• Grab my party button & put it on your post, party page or blog somewhere.  If you want the chance to be featured, this is key.  The button code can be found HERE.
• Check out some of the other fabulous links and share some crafty comment love.  We all love getting comments!!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter