The First Step When Bringing The Outside In This Fall

Fall is the perfect time to think about bringing the outdoors inside. With all the beautiful colors, shapes and textures in the world around us, it’s perfectly natural to want to decorate your home with these earthy pieces.

The challenge, though, is only bringing in what you want to bring in. Decorating with acorns, leaves and branches may look lovely, but it’s very possible that you’re bringing some unwanted guests inside with you.

So what do you need to do before you start working with outdoor materials?

* If there are holes or broken parts on branches or acorns, don’t bring them inside. They’re evidence of tiny critters living inside them. Take the time to find pieces that haven’t been turned into something’s natural habitat.

* Wash them thoroughly with soap and warm water, especially if it hasn’t rained lately. Leave them on a stack of paper towels to dry completely.

* A special tip for acorns: once they’re dry, put them in a 200-degree oven for about 2 hours, stirring them every 30 minutes so they don’t burn. This will bake the yucky stuff out and help preserve them.

* If you want them to last even longer, you can cover branches and acorns with a clear polyurethane. It comes in both a can and a spray, so choose whichever you like.

From here, you can craft and decorate to your heart’s content. For more great autumn crafts and decorating tips, type “fall” into the search bar at the top of the page. This will connect you to many of the projects I’ve shared over the years. Enjoy!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Holland Creme - That Amazing White Stuff In Donuts

Image
I remember going to the grocery store every Saturday morning when I was growing up, and my favorite place in the entire store was the donut case. All the glazed, powdered and filled baked goods drew me like a magnet. My favorites, far and away, were the ones filled with that beautiful white, fluffy creme. At the time I didn't know it was called Holland Creme - I just knew it was the most amazing concoction ever. Ever. Here is my version of this sweet treat. You can make your own fried donuts and fill them, or like I did here, you can cut a crevice into store-bought donuts with a knife and fill them with creme in a piping bag. Either way, you're going to love it. Ingredients: 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup water 1 cup vegetable oil 1 cup shortening 1 cup butter 1 Tbsp vanilla 7 cups powdered sugar 1. Make a simple syrup by combining sugar and water in a sauce pan over medium heat until boiling, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool complet
Read more

Recovering An Old Card Table And Making It Usable Again

Image
This card table recover project has been on my to-do list for months. I've been using it as my workspace in the craft room for quite some time, and it sees a lot of abuse. Here it is now, with a neutral cover on it so I can take better pictures for my tutorials. There were dents and dings in the old blue covering from metal tools. And yes, I've used my embossing heat tool on it several times, leaving pretty good scars. The padding underneath the blue cover also made it difficult to keep paper crafts flat when adhering them together, so it was time for something new. That's where a simple vinyl tablecloth comes in handy. The process to recover the table is pretty simple, but I learned a couple of lessons the hard way. I share them with you now. First, don't do this on any surface but a carpet. I tried it on the deck int he sunshine to get better pictures, but all it did was tear up the cover. Second, get a second pair of hands to help you kee
Read more

Crafts For Teen Girls To Make

Image
In our teen girls Bible study, we're studying our way through the Proverbs 31 woman and it's been such a blessing to me, as I hope it's been to them. Every month we spend an afternoon or an evening together studying Scripture, making something amazing in the kitchen and creating something that corresponds to the verse we're in. Choosing the crafts each time can be a challenge for several reasons. It needs to be something they can completely finish (or do most of) because once they leave they're probably not going to work on it themselves - that's just the nature of teenagers. Remember? It also needs to be a project that keeps they're attention, is age-appropriate and is cool enough that they'll want to keep it or give it to someone special. But hey, no pressure on the Bible study leader, right? Here are just a few of the projects we've done together in the year we've been meeting. * This month's craft will be the adorable cross stit
Read more