Sweater Pumpkins/Gourds

Can you believe October is here? Whew, where has the year gone? I'm not really complaining because I love fall and Halloween so much that I'm excited to welcome October.
Several years ago, I worked as a teacher's assistant for Mrs. Brandt's functional skills classroom. I loved and hated that job every day. The teacher was extremely creative and we did lots of neat things with the students. One thing we did was to make pumpkins using fabric, "fluff", toilet paper, mulch, and hot glue. The pumpkins were so cute and I thought she was a genius, I have no idea if she came up with this idea on her own or found it somewhere. Well, as soon as fall weather hit I knew I needed to make some of those for our house. I thought some cheap sweaters from Goodwill would be perfect and would sort of update the craft. Then, wowza all these creative bloggers I follow and linked up with were posting sweater pumpkins. How cool is that to have an idea like someone else?!?! I hadn't even bought sweaters- those creative ladies are on it!

I finally bought some sweaters-all 1/2 price at Goodwill-in orange, yellow, and green and got to work. I started with a short sleeve, orange shirt that had whimsical stitching on it making a pumpkin from the front and a pumpkin from the back. I just used scissors to cut the shirt, seperating the front and back and discarding the sleeves. I placed a roll of toilet paper in the center of the panel then added fiber fill around the toilet paper. Using hot glue tuck the ends of the shirt into the center of the roll working all the way around. Instead of using mulch like Mrs. Brandt I cut short pieces off of branches. Then glue the stick in the middle. For a leaf I used the belt from a green jacket that I never wear. I ended up only doing the toilet paper roll process for those 2 pumpkins. When I started using the sweaters I started with the sleeves. Since it was a tubular (dude!) shape it was easier and they made cute lil pumpkins.

To make the sleeve pumpkins I cut each sleeve into 3 segments. Turn the segment inside out then hot glue into a +, then turn it right side out. Stuff. To glue the opening shut I added glue in 4 equally spaced spots and pinched closed but it still left an opening. Then glued these pinched flaps down all going in the same direction.This made it easier to add glue to the branch and insert it so that the glue pulled the glued spots inward. I know that's not completely clear but I couldn't figure out how to apply glue, pinch and hold the camera at the same time-I only have two hands. :)

The striped gourds are from a scarf that again I don't wear. I'm not a scarf person, sometimes I wish I was because I am jealous of how cute some ladies look in them-on me it's a huge FAIL! Anyway the scarf was knitted and tubular and had fall colors so I thought why not. They aren't my favorite gourds from the patch but I think they fit in with the others. 

Once I got started on making these lil cuties I couldn't stop. I still have an orange and green sweater that I haven't cut yet. Honestly, I'm thinking about saving the orange sweater to wear myself because it's an accent color for the kids' school colors (don't ask, lol)

Now that October is here that means it's time to get the Halloween decorations out too! Woohoo!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by At Home with Sweet T!

-Tracy

I will be linking up to these fabulous parties:

Fall wreath

Can you believe I don't think I've ever made a wreath before? Well I decided it was about time I did. I love all the wreaths that I've seen on other blogs and all over Pinterest. Have you seen the coffee filter wreaths? or what about the burlap wreaths? Well I didn't have either of those on hand but I did have brown kraft paper and brown paper sacks leftover from the Craft Party so that's what I used.

Supplies:
Brown paper bags or brown kraft paper*
Flower shaped punch
Hot glue
Foam wreath form
Ribbon(to hang)
*This would probably look good in other colors.

Punch a bunch (probably just shy of a million) flowers from brown craft paper and paper sacks.

What I had in mind to use was a scalloped circle punch, but I don't have one and didn't want the fuss of cutting a million pieces on the Cricut. So I used the flower shape that I had, it's scallop-y and worked just fine.
Place the end of a pen or pencil in the center of the flower and scrunch the flower to the pen.
Add a dab of hot glue to the paper then press it to the foam form.

Really scrunch and shove those flowers together and fluff after the glue has set to hide any signs of white foam underneath.

Doesn't kinda look like dried hydrangea? It really was that easy, just time consuming. This project took way longer than I had thought it would. At least 3 naptimes and extra "free time."

These are the best pictures I have and yes it is dark outside. I finally hung the wreath from our porch light this week and was so excited it was done and up that I took pictures right away so I wouldn't forget but totally meant to take pictures today during the day. Well I forgot to get the day time pictures. My porch and house could use some more fall decor so I'd better get busy crafting! Maybe I'll get better pictures when I add more fall goodies.

-Tracy
Fabulous blogs where I like to party:

Fabulous Blogs where I like to party: 

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Personalized Wedding Gift

Well this weekend we went to a fun wedding for my cousin Megan and her new husband Dustin. I've been really looking forward to her wedding especially after she told me her theme was baseball. My wedding was baseball themed, in fact we had the reception at Victory Field for the Indianapolis Indian's opening night.
I wanted to share the gift I made for the newlyweds.

This was my first time using vinyl in my Cricut. Now I know why there are so many projects out there with vinyl. It's so easy and makes everything look so professional. 

So to start I found this framed picture of a flower at Goodwill:

Um yeah, I don't get the picture but the frame was $8 and in great shape. When I was shopping for the right frame I made sure that there was a large enough lip around the glass to hide the brads that would hold the glass in place. I removed the photo and cardboard backing. The frame does have some minor scratches so I gave it a few coats of black satin spray paint. Then using my cricut I cut the couples last name, est., and 2012.

I did have to reapply a few of the letters because my spacing was off and the "d" wouldn't fit but I was surprised how forgiving the vinyl is. I thought I was going to have to re-cut their last name. Yay! I see so many more vinyl projects in my future. Oh and yes, the happy couples real last name is Drinkard.

I started wrapping the gift and then realized I hadn't taken a photo of the finished product. I tried to do it while I was wrapping but that was no good so I panicked and ran outside with it. Getting a family of 5 gussy-ed up is tough. Even though I was outside for a few minutes, my husband found me to ask my opinion on his vest. I was too distracted to take more than a couple pictures. 

And do you think that with all 5 of us gussy-ed up we got 1, just 1 picture of the 5 of us. Nope. Figures doesn't it. My sister did manage to snap this photo of me with the beautiful bride.

And because I mentioned my baseball themed wedding here's a picture from my wedding.

I hope the Newlyweds like their gift. I know I would have loved it, and I might just make one for us. 

Have a great week!

-Tracy

Fabulous Blogs where I like to party: 

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