Mrsmissioncontrol has been taking a little leave from the blog and as you can see, I have not done very well without her. I need her and I missy her so much! So I apologize for not keeping up daily with the blog as I could have. But enough with the coulda, shoulda, wouldas. Today is a new day and a new week and only a short while until Thanksgiving! Eek! So I thought id share some DIY fall craft project I also was able to enslave the children into. What’s the point in having children if you can’t put them to work? Jk. But not really.

Below are the fall diy projects I have created around our home. They can also be found on our Pinterest page (did you know we even had one?!). So go, follow us on Pinterest, pin our pins and share some love.

DIY FALL TWIG FRAME

This was actually a past project I had done earlier in October. Super easy and super cheap! Read all about how I did it and enlisted my kids to help.

DIY FABRIC SWAG

These are all the rage right now (at least in my little world) and simple to make. I simply bought 5 coordinating fabrics to get started. I like to mix up texture, patterns and solids. I think it gives a good variety and depth to the project. I used some burlap, cottons, and other material I honestly don’t know the name of. I started a cut with a pair of scissors then ripped the material. Each strip I made was approximately 1 inch wide by 6 inches long. How many strips you need will depend on the length you want to create. Generally I double the length and add a few extra inches. So my entertainment cabinet was about 3 feet long, so I made my swag 6 feet when done. The final piece is to take some twine or jute cord and cut your length. From there you tie a simple knot in the middle of the fabric pieces. So about 3 inches hung down from the twine.

DIY “GIVE THANKS” BURLAP SWAG

If you own a cutting machine or know someone who does (become best friends with them!) this project is so much easier to complete using one. I do know that at our local and very crappy craft store, you can use their cutting machine in the store for a small fee, so if owning one isn’t in the cards, then try your local craft store. And if you are looking for a reason to purchase a cutting machine, use these crafts as your reason. Best money spent ever!

For this project I bought burlap at my fabric store. Next, a friend free handed a banner icon. Using this icon, we traced and drew out then icon on our burlap and cut them out. You basically can make your banner say anything. “Happy Birthday”, “welcome home”, “merry Christmas” and the list can go on. I hate decorating for each individual holiday. I don’t have time or the energy to make projects for them all. So I multitask and make projects that can be carried out and used for a few months at a time. So instead of saying “Happy Halloween”, I went with the generic “Give Thanks”.

After cutting out our banner icons, I went to my cutting machine and easily typed out the letters. The only issues I had were getting the letters the right size to fit the way I wanted to on my banner icon. After I achieved the look I wanted, I heated up my Walmart hot glue gun and glued the letters to the burlap. I did use a heavier weighted card stock for it to hold up. I was a little worried about the strips of hot glue showing through the card stock, but since I opted for a heavier weight paper, I didn’t have that issue.

After I was done with gluing the letters, I used the same roll of twine from my last project and hot glued the burlap banner icons onto the twine.  When I was all finished I hung them on our door with the 3M adhesive removable hooks.

DIY FALL GARLAND

I was trolling Pinterest and spamming multiple people’s boards with some easy fall crafts when I ran across this one at A Glimpse Inside. I loved that I was upcycling things I already had which equaled free. But I did not have enough toilet paper rolls for the fullness I wanted. So I improvised. I also saved my paper towel rolls. When I was ready to do the project, I followed the directions for the toilet paper roll pumpkins and apples. As you can see, I only did the pumpkins. I used my cutting machine again to cut out some leaf shapes that I got for free as a “free weekly shape” on the Silhouette sight recently and lastly used left over scraps of fabric from my DIY fabric swag to finish it off. I attached everything with either a knot or hot glue and hung it in our entry way.

DIY “FALL” PROJECT

Again, if you don’t have a cutting machine here is another reason I am giving you to run out and buy one or befriend someone who owns one. It will make your crafts so much easier to accomplish and make your house look like a cover of a Better Homes and Gardens magazine with all the cuteness you are creating.

I, once again, used the left over fabric from the DIY fabric swag and the DIY fall swag to line the back of the photo frames I got for a steal at Goodwill. The frames were still in their original packaging, so I know they came from Ikea. Then I used my cutting machine and cut out the letters in 4 different fonts. The last thing I did before assembling was to paint the frames. They were a unfinished blonde wood and I hate blonde wood. So I dry brushed some brown craft paint on them. I didnt want to perfect, so I loved how the wood grain shows through slightly.