Fall Family Decoration (With Crap You May Already Have in Your House)

Soooo.....it's been awhile.  My creative spurts come and go, so I haven't been crafting much (hence, not much to share), but.......

but.....

FALL IS HERE!!!!!!!!

Warning: Do NOT type "fall" or "fall DIY" into Pinterest.  Just don't do it. Unless you found my post that way, then...GOOD FOR YOU.

You will fall down a leafy, slightly cinnamon/clove smelling rabbit hole, bumping your head on mason jars, burlap and crock pot potpourri on your way down. 

I know this because I did it.  I pinned 100's of "Fall" things last week and then got completely overwhelmed.  I chose to make a votive candle holder, covered in vertical, hot glued sticks, to create a rustic, glowing wonder.  Isn't it cute?

Found from this adorable DIY list

 

Yep.....nope...didn't make it yet.  The glasses are still in a Dollar Store bag in our office and the sticks?  They're still in the backyard.

 

I didn't have time/desire to scour the yard for sticks.  I wanted to make something then and now (well, a week ago at this point.)  

 

Begin walk to craft room.  Scan craft room.  What can I find?  Here's what I found....

 

- smallish canvas (8x10)  These usually come in multi-packs at craft stores, so I buy them in bulk for occasions such as this!

- random fall color acrylic paint....both matte and shimmery!

- spray paint in random, fall colors!

- GOLD SPRAY PAINT! (a.k.a. my favorite invention ever.  EVER.)

- burlap! duh! had to incorporate it somehow. and some lace ribbon.  cause why not.

- sponge brushes!

 

It's also important to note that our family recently welcomed a new baby, our son Casey, in March.  Yes, this news comes halfway through the blog post, but it's only now that I remembered that I wanted to incorporate our hands or something into the craft to commemorate our first Fall with baby Casey. (*look, I created this blog as an outlet for my anxiety and ADD, so I'm allowed to follow whatever format I choose)

Anyway........I also love, love, love creating artwork that is multi-media, in that it has different textures, elements, techniques all in one piece.  (See Wanderlust post!)  So, without any real, solid plan....I kinda just went with it in this order.....

First- spray painted the canvas gold! 

Next- painted a tree and some branches on it with my acrylic paint.  My 5 year old said "nice tree", so that was all the validation I needed that it looked okay.

Okay, realized I didn't get a pic of JUST the tree.  But, you can see it there. THEN, I decided to make the "leaves" our family handprints!  Mine's first in cranberry red.  But then I thought just "hand leaves" would look too crafty (God forbid!!!) so the kids and I went foraging for real leaves from actual nature to use as stamps and stencils by hitting them with spray paint.  (this is where ADD comes full circle.  Remember how I was avoiding candle craft because it involved going to look for sticks? Well, look what happened anyway!)

Here is us foraging.

Okay, back to the canvas we went.  I tried to hit the leaves with spray paint, hoping for a cool stencil-like effect.    It didn't work.  It looked horrible.

But fear not, I kept going.  My handprint was slowly disappearing, but I knew it was there. Next came the handprints of my husband, 5 year old son and Baby Casey! That was a real risk, letting a 6 month old have any physical input into the project (thus risking ruination)  I looked him square in the eyes and told him he better keep his hand flat on the canvas if he wanted the Similac to keep flowing.  He complied. (his hand missing from this picture below because I was too busy rinsing his little hand of toxic, acrylic paint to bother to take a picture.  it's in the final one)

Last, I wanted to add li'l something in the blank space on the right, so I chose to add a "C" for our last name.  I realized I still hadn't used the burlap yet, so I chose to use it as a sponge of sorts to reverse-stencil (I just made that up) a "C" I cut out from the computer.

Ta-DA!!!!!

In the end, this was my result, and I think it looks pretty darn cute! What do you think? What would you add or make different?  Come on!  I see your page views from Mongolia, Ireland and Egypt.....leave me a comment!  Unless it's not Fall there.