Autumn & Halloween DIY decorating in my bathroom

I just love autumn. This time of year just gets to me. This is what I was up to today. ;-)

 Today I cleaned my bathrooms, but felt a bit frisky bc of the briskness in the air.

Apothecary Jars are great! You can do anything w them. Here I simply took dried grn peas, red beans and popcorn kernels and layed them in the jar. I added a candle to the inside and some burlap and a brown sheer ribbon tied around the outside. Done, too EasY! This arrangement will last the entire Autumn season, --through Thanksgiving.

I decided to have a bit of fun making some Halloween decor items in my clean bathrooms. These pictures are of our guest bath, that gets the most visitors. ;-) 

 My black kitty was "helping" me... he looks Halloween enough, lol, so I'm including his picture.

The Sink:

I simply cut a Casper ghost like shape out of blk paper, poster board would work too. I used double sided tape to adhere my shape to the mirror. EasY!

The Toilet:

Here I did the same thing, but on white paper. I had to draw the eyes in w a black marker. Now, if your toilet is white, then black paper would look better, and you could cut out the White's of the eyes, and cut out black circles for the pupils.   ;0)

I had so much fun w this idea that I thought I'd share... I hope you can "play" this Halloween too. Cleaning the bathroom used to be such a drag... now it is fun! Tee, hee... ;0)

Today I made two wire and fabric Christmas Wreaths

I wanted to replace my old wreaths that I hang up for Christmas this year.

Here is how they turned out.

A close up of one of them:

What you will need:

Two wire wreath frames (if you want to make two wreaths) from any craft store:

Fabric scraps:

My fabric shelf:

ZigZag scissors, or Pinking shears:

Christmas nick nacks:

Instructions:

1. Choose your fabric (how many fabric choices you decide on does not matter). I picked green and red this year. You can go with whatever colors fit your Christmas decore. The images or patterns on the fabric will not be seen, it is more about color:

2. Cut into about 11 inch strips:

I find it easiest to cut like seen in the below image:

Once it is cut horizontally, fold in half and cut. This will give you at least four strips in fewer cuts:

Don't forget to cut the ends off. The zigzag edge will not frey and the white edge is not attractive:

Regular scissors would leave fabric that would eventually frey without a hem. This Zig Zag edge will not frey:

3. Take your wire frame and fold your fabric strip over the first wire rung:

4. Now tie once, no need to knot it:

#1 wire ring. Beginning on wire one:

Decide on a pattern and repeat it. Use the horizontal wire to separate the sections, seen in the above photo. Use 7 fabric strips between these wires for the first ring.

Finished first ring:

#2 wire ring. Starting on wire two. Note the folded fabric strip on wire two in the photo above. Use 9 strips between the separated sections on the second hoop.

Wire hoop two completed, leaving two more rings left to do:

#3 ring. Now on the 3rd wire ring:

For the third ring, use ten strips between sections (as you get into larger wire hoops, there is more space to fill up):

Working on the third:

#4 ring. Just the forth ring left:

Finished one wreath:

I looked at it and thought it needed more "Christmas." I dug out some old fabric scraps of some festive candy striped fabric:

I cut about 10 strips of the striped and of the plain red a bit longer than the previous cut strips (about 16 inches) because I wanted these to stand out past the others. I just tied them onto the frame where I thought the wreath could use some spark. Kind of like highlighting our hair. ;0)

Now to do it all again.

I did all the above steps times two to the second wreath.

Now it is time to add our little Christmas nick nacks:

And:

The wreaths are finished:

Side by side, two for double doors:

Merry Christmas! And Happy Holidays! ;-)
Note:

I’ve done three other blogs on wreaths, feel welcome to check them out too.

Suggestions for all kinds of different types and styles of wreaths:

http://lisakramerartlifestyle.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-to-make-valentine-wreath-for-your.html

A how to make an Autumn or Halloween wreath:

http://lisakramerartlifestyle.blogspot.com/2011/09/i-wanted-to-make-new-autumn-wreaths-for.html

Now changing the autumn Halloween wreaths into Thanksgiving:
http://lisakramerartlifestyle.blogspot.com/2011/11/autumn-thanksgiving-wreaths-easy-how-to.html

Tiny doors w a small surprise. Painted Santa Advent Calendar.

This year I wanted to make a new Calendar to house goodies for the 24 days of December. Now Each child has one.

What you will need:

Purchased or woodworker homemade wood calander with small doors (see picture of the one I purchased at Michaels).

Brushes

Acrylic Paints

A tray (I recycle produce trays)

Magazines or newspapers to protect your working surface

White Gesso (for Acrylic paints):

Instructions:

1. Take your wooden frame and paint with Gesso to prep surface for painting. Let this coat dry. (Acrylic dries fast).

It should look like this, a bit opaque white.

2. Once the Gesso dries, begin painting your image with the colors of acrylic paint that you desire.

This is the Santa I painted before I shaded the figure. However, you may not want to add shade and leave yours like this.

Shading added:

Ho, HO, hO... ;-D
3. Inside each little door, put some goodies for the kids to find each day:

Behind each door is a small surprise:

4. This year, I purchased three small trees (One for each child):

In their Advent Calander they will find not only candy and small toys, but tiny ornaments for their tree as well. ;-)I wanted to do something new and different and came up with this idea. ;0)

Above is the new Calendar with it's doors. Now each child has their own, so I do not have to cram three of each goodie into one calendar. Below are some calendars from last year:

And:

And now our new one:

I just love the holidays. This time of year is so special. I am becoming more aware of how quickly the kids are growing up, so I am wanting to grab the fun before Kid-time ends, as they one by one leave the nest bound for college. ;-)

Happy Holidays, and a Merry Christmas!

I wanted to make new Autumn Wreaths for this Halloween; A how to fabric & wire wreaths

I made two new wreaths this year... my old Halloween wreaths were getting shabby. Instructions on how to make an easy wreath.

Daytime photo above, nighttime photo below.

Note: For how to convert these Autumn wreaths to Thanksgiving, see blog: http://lisakramerartlifestyle.blogspot.com/2011/11/autumn-thanksgiving-wreaths-easy-how-to.html

Double duty for these easy wire wreaths, multiple holidays in one! Ta Da!

Supplies needed:

Two wire wreaths:

 

About 5 different fabrics in autumn or halloween colors, Here are the ones that I chose pictured in the above photo with my cat, Bagheera. I decided on two darker ones, and three lighter. My little helper fits in well with the holiday theme. Both cats loved helping me cut the strips, lol anything string like and they are right in the middle of whatever I am doing.

Pinking sheers.

Two wooden welcome plaques for halloween greetings (handmade by using acrylic paint on wood or store bought). While shopping at Kroger yesterday, I noted some very cute wooden welcome plaques for $2.59. They would work really well. I didn't buy them to show you, because I already had these two plaques ready to go.
Small halloween items like my 2 small candelabra's.

Any Halloween decore will work. Pumpkins, ghosts, black cats or go really scary. Whatever is your favorite type of "welcome".

Wire, see the wire holding the candelabra:

Some type of halloween garland. (Optional).

The garland I used can be made (It's just beads on wires and brown florist tape on the wire) or you can use store bought garlands of any halloween kind. ;-)

I took down my summer wreaths today and put up the new autumn ones.

First I had to pick out fabric that I thought looked like autumn colors. It does not matter what is on the fabric. What you choose is more based on color, or what you just have on hand. Hum, my shelf is messy, looks like the kids were in here. ;-)

I chose these three fabrics to start:

Take pinking sheers to cut out strips of fabric because the sawtooth instead of a straight edge will prevent fraying of the material. It looks like a small zigzag edge. I cut eleven inch strips. Basically a bolt of fabric cut horizontal and with that long strip, cut in half, making two strips.

See the fold in the fabric? Cut in that direction once, getting a strip of about 22 inches long, and then cut that in half is the easiest way to do it... but it does not matter how you obtain your strips.

I chose and cut three lighter shade fabrics of orange, yellow, and red.

Two wire wreath frames can be obtained from any craft store. I purchased these from Michaels:

Begin by tying strips onto inner circle. Starting with the smallest circle, use six strips for section. Just fold strip over like this:

Then simply tie it once, no need to knot it. Note the horizontal wire separating sections.

Six Strips, wire one.

Now all three colors are on the wire, repeating a pattern, each section has six strips, two strips of each fabric print. Alternate the three fabrics:

First wire, inner circle done. Now ready to move to second wire ring.

My other cat, Mooshu taking a break from "helping" me with the fabric strips. Cutting the strips with his whiskers in the way was a task, lol.

Seven strips, wire two.

Cutting darker two fabric's into strips so I can now alternate five differnt fabrics. You can use as many different fabrics that you chose, 1 to 10... there is no wrong way. Now I am ready to begin ring two. Alternating pattern with seven strips, (increasing by one strip per section because ring is getting bigger).

Begining with wire two:

Working on wire two I am alternating the lighter and darker fabrics into a consistent pattern. It does not matter the pattern you choose to repeat.

Wire two finished and starting to work on ring wire three; I will be using eight strips now.

Bagherra still helping. He looks so Halloween. I bought him a skeleton costume last year, but it was too small. Both cats have been on a diet due to the over weight factor, lol.

Eight strips, wire three.

Wire three finished:

I'm using the cats to break up the monotomy of this How-To. Lol, They are intermissions:

See those long white whiskers? While cutting the fabric strips, he would get his face right up to the sheers while I was trying to cut, --so that he could play or see what what going on, lol! Big helpers with most projects. Pets are fun.

  

Nine strips, wire four (outside wire).

Now on to ring four. Use nine strips:

Working on last wire in this picture above.

Finishing last wire four, see outside ring almost completed.

Back side of one finished wreath.

The next step is to poke all the strips to one side of the wreath, leaving the back side without all the hanging strips.

Now do it all again to a second wire wreath:

After poking them all to one side, you can add your decorations by using any type of wire. I used two guages; a thinner gauge for the candelabra, because the hole at the top was so small.

One of the plaques:

The candelabra, garland and plaque I used on the "Spook" wreath can all be seen in this one picture:

Bagherra intently watching the wreath process. He is wanting attention, a lap cat, lol.

Spook Wreath:

Picture more blurry in this one, but it is lighter... the candelabra and garland are more visible here:

Here are close up pictures of the other "Boo" wreath's decorations:

Boo Wreath:

Just wrap the garland around the wreath, securing wired ends inside the back of the frame:

These decorations can be changed after halloween --just take off whatever you added for the holiday, --leaving the autumn wreath decorations up until Thanksgiving. Add a turkey, pilgrim, horn, corn, or acorn, lol...yes, I'm in rhyme to be silly. Or just leave the wreath in simple autumn colors.

You can handpaint your own wooden plaque or buy one. Today I saw some adorable plaques at Kroger for $2.59 each. They would be perfect for this project. I already had these ready to go, so I didn't purchase them.

The two finished wreaths, Boo!

Bagherra and my son say, "Happy Halloween to you." Hoping it holds more treats than tricks!

Fyi: another blog I did on all kinds of wreaths: http://lisakramerartlifestyle.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-to-make-valentine-wreath-for-your.html --Easy ideas for many different types of wreaths.