Sunday Craft Day

Autumn is in full swing here in Alaska.

The weather is getting colder, the air is brisker, and the autumn colors are breath-taking!

But I know as fast as it came, it'll soon be gone.

It's said that autumn only lasts maybe 3 weeks here in Alaska. Then it's full on winter.

I believe it. Just this weekend, every mountain in sight turned white and frost is now covering our car windows in the morning - auto start is fantastic!. 

But I am still going to treasure this autumn season. And what better way than to decorate the house! I've been on the look out for some cute decorations, but I haven't wanted to spend the money and when we are in Anchorage, I have other items on my list that hold more priority than simple fall decorations.

Luckily, this afternoon I got to looking around and realized I had enough to give our house the sprucing up it needed for this glorious season.

(Also, I was not into decorating for Halloween. There are so many decorations out there for this holiday. I would buy these items and then put them out for just 26 days? No thanks. This way I can keep my decorations out until the end of November. Because after the time it took me this afternoon, they deserve to be seen for more than 26 days...)

My first project of the day, my burlap wreath!

This summer when I went home, my mother still had wedding decorations from our wedding in 2013. Most were the flag banners she had made, some yellow and white flowers, and tons of burlap! Over the summer, I had purchased a wire wreath in hopes I would make a cute summer wreath, but definitely did not get around to it. Oops.

I knew I wanted to make a wreath since I basically had most of what I needed, but I couldn't use the summer flowers from our wedding for this autumn season. So when I went into our local grocery store and saw some fall leaves and accents on sale, I didn't think twice.

To make the wreath, I used this video tutorial.

And it made it ten times easier that my burlap was already made into strips.

This part of the wreath took no time at all since basically you just weave in through each section and then fluff it the way you want.

Now with the decorating of the wreath...

This took me awhile. It would probably have helped if I had a glue gun that actually worked. Thankfully, in no time, I was able to borrow one from our neighbors. I am not the craftiest person. So arranging and rearranging these leaves took a little bit of time. And then trying to figure out how to put that initial on?? Luckily, we had some rubber bands so I just hot glued those babies on and hoped it would hold. We'll see how it holds up the next time the wind blows! But overall, I love how it turned out. 

^^ Gluing those suckers on.. hoping they stay!

 The finished product!

My second project of the day was my Happy Fall flag banner!

For this project, I wanted to keep the burlap theme. So instead of using the extra strips, making them into flags, and then sewing them together, why not use the ones my mother had already made?

Sorry mom for butchering your sweet yellow, grey, and burlap pennants you made for the wedding...

I took my already made flags and just cut the burlap ones off, leaving enough twine to connect each flag with glue.

^^ Seeing this brought back such sweet memories, too!

^^ See how easy! Already made flags!

I then just hot glue gunned the ties together to make it one longer strand, hand wrote my letters,  added leaves to each side to have that pop of autumn and VOILA! My "Happy Fall" flag banner is finished!

 With my "extras", I just put them in a vase together underneath my banner on my windowsill   which adds a little something, too.

Okay, and I admit I did buy something autumn-y when we went to Anchorage. That dollar section of Target is ah-ma-zing! Who knows what I'm talking about?? I mean they have all sorts of items that are in season and not to mention super cute. I got these dish towels, that came with two in a pack, for basically nothing! I couldn't pass it up...

 So my Sunday was filled with decorating our home in an easy DIY manner that was definitely cost effective. And how sweet is it that I used decorations from our wedding. Such a sweet reminder of that special day!

What Fall DIY projects have you found to be budget friendly and super cute? I would love to know!