My Sunday Sparks {No. 59}

Happy Sunday! I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!  Here are a few of the amazing projects linked up at last week's Creative Spark...

I loved this rustic reclaimed wood table runner from This Is Happiness.  Such a perfect touch for a fall tablescape.

Crafty Scrappy Happy did an amazing job with this upcycled rocking chair.  I really need some of that material!

It will be October 1st tomorrow - time to pull out your Halloween Countdowns!  I love this easy DIY countdown calendar from Alderberry Hill.

 I always like to make a little treat for the kids to hand out to their classmates at Halloween.  These pumpkin crayons from The Moody Fashionista are such a great alternative to the typical sugary treats!

I love this unique stenciled wall from Crafting in the Rain.   It's a great design tool for those that want to stencil but do not have the time {or patience!} to do a whole wall.

Turtles and Tails has been on a bit of a wreath building marathon!  This beautiful monogram wreath is my favorite.

My yummy treat of the week is this {all from scratch!} chocolate pie from Don't Waste the Crumbs. This could be all yours if you just have 30 minutes to spare!

Thank-you SO much to everyone who came out and enjoyed the party last week!  You are all AMAZING! If you haven't had a chance to check out the other links yet, you can find them here.  For those of you that were featured here or on my Facebook page, please feel free to grab a button from my sidebar.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Pumpkin Art

Happy Friday!!  For some reason this has felt like a very long week and I am definitely in need of a weekend! Anyone have any fun plans?  I think I will just be excited to spend a couple of mornings in my pajamas this weekend!  And maybe finish up a project or two...

Speaking of projects, I thought that I had finished up all of my fall decorating, but then my lovely boys pointed out that I still had my spring art hanging up.  I kind of got a way with it for the summer but it definitely wasn't going to pass for fall decor.  Less than an hour later, those spring flowers had transformed into pumpkins!

To make the pumpkins, all you need is a circle punch {I used a 2 inch and 3 inch punch} and some patterned scrapbook paper.  I used 5 circles for each of the pumpkins.  Once I had punched my circles, I used a paper edger to rough up the edges.

Fold the circles in half, and glue 1/2 of one circle to 1/2 of the next circle until they are all joined up.  {If you wanted to make a full pumpkin to hang or sit on a shelf, just add more circles}. I ripped some brown cardstock to create the ground and then glued the pumpkins down.  I then glued some sticks down for the stems {I like using Quick Grip glue} and twisted some paper for the leaves.

It was still looking a little plain so I added a few wheat shoots and some wording around the matting.

Now I can't wait to get out to the real pumpkin patch with the boys!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend! 

I linked up with Funky Junk Interiors, Somewhat Simple, Not Just a Housewife, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Pumpkin Art, Crafty Scrappy Happy, At the Picket Fence, The 36th Avenue, Delightful Order, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Stone Gable, Uncommon, Tip Junkie, Today's Creative Blog, Home Stories A to Z, Skip to my Lou, Under the Table and Dreaming, Alderberry Hill, Positively Splendid, Chic on a Shoestring, I Heart Naptime, Itsy Bitsy Paper, Be Different Act Normal and Tatertots and Jello.

Fall Porch

Good morning!  I hope you are all enjoying the changing of the seasons!  The leaves are starting to change colors and even though it is still quite sunny during the day, the air definitely has that fall coolness to it.  It's such a beautiful time of the year!

 

I have always loved decorating the front porch for fall. It's probably one of my favorite things to decorate - I just love the colors of the Mums and all of the different shapes of the pumpkins. 

We will be adding a lot more pumpkins to the porch after our trip to the pumpkin patch in October but Matthew and I got a head start to our collection when we were out at the apple farm last weekend.

I re-used the wood planters from my summer porch to hold some of the smaller pumpkins and leaves.  I used my Silhouette to create a stencil, painted on the Harvest, and just sanded away.  I added a bunch of newspaper to the bottom of the basket so I just needed to fill the top up with pumpkins.

My two new purchases for the porch this year were this wooden owl that I picked up from Home Sense.

And this old watering can that I found at a thrift store when we were camping a few weekends ago.

So there's the front porch!  Next week I'll actually invite you inside and give you a little house tour!

Happy Fall!

I linked up with Funky Junk Interiors, Liz Marie Blog, At the Picket Fence, Live Laugh Rowe, The 36th Avenue, Delightful Order, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Stone Gable, Uncommon, Thrifty Decor Chick, Tip Junkie, Today's Creative Blog, Home Stories A to Z, Skip to my Lou, Under the Table and Dreaming, Alderberry Hill, Positively Splendid, I Heart Naptime, Be Different Act Normal, Tatertots and Jello, The Frugal Girls, Tidy Mom, Crafty Scrappy Happy, Chic on a Shoestring and Somewhat Simple.

Pumpkin Soap

Happy Wednesday! I hope you have been having a great week!  I have been having lots of fun getting things decorated for fall around here.  And since I don't like any rooms to feel left out, I created a little project for the bathroom...

It is a very simple project but it does get a little messy! :)  All you need is some hard orange {or white} soap and a few sticks.  I used some goat milk soap in a green tea and nectarine scent so it smelled pretty good while I was creating these!  1 bar makes roughly 2 pumpkins.

TO DO

• Using a cheese grater, grate up all of the soap.  Place the grated soap in a bowl and add a little bit of warm water.  Grab a handful the size of the pumpkin you want to make and form a ball.  Add water as needed to form and smooth out your ball.
• Once your ball is formed, shape your pumpkin.  I flattened mine a bit so it wasn't so round and placed my thumb in the top to indent it a bit.  If there is a lot of foamy soap on your pumpkin, blot it down with a towel.
• Add a stick to the top of the pumpkin.
• Using a knife, carve out the slits in the sides of the pumpkin.

So there you go!  I super easy project to make your bathroom happy all fall!  They also look cute added to a basket with some real mini pumpkins or some rolled towels.

Enjoy your day!

I linked up with Funky Junk Interiors, Whipperberry, The Shabby Nest, The Shabby Art Boutique, Liz Marie Blog, Not Just a Housewife, A Bowl Full of Lemons, At the Picket Fence, Delightful Order, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Uncommon, Thrifty Decor Chick, Tip Junkie, Today's Creative Blog, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Home Stories A to Z, Skip to my Lou, Under the Table and Dreaming, Alderberry Hill, Positively Splendid, Chic on a Shoestring, I Heart Naptime, Itsy Bitsy Paper, Tatertots and Jello, The Frugal Girls, 30 Handmade Days, Thrifty Decor Chick, Tidy Mom, Craftberry Bush, Somewhat Simple, Live Laugh Rowe, Stone Gable and The 36th Avenue.

 

The Creative Spark {No. 59}

Welcome back to another week of The Creative Spark! I can't wait to see what you all have been working on!

This week was all about fall around here - complete with the fall/back to school colds!  In between coughing, sneezing, and just being completely energy drained, we managed to get all of our fall decorations out and even fit in a couple of easy projects.  

The piano room got a new fall wreath.

I created this Harvest sign for our mantel.

And I {finally!!} got around to changing our chalkboard!

We also celebrated all of our summer memories with these cookie cup ice cream mice.

So now it`s your turn!!  What have you all been up to?  Feel free to link up anything that you have created - crafts, DIY, scrapbook projects, organization ideas, decorating, recipes - anything goes! 

Want to link up?

• Link directly to your specific post {not the homepage}. 
• Please add The Creative Spark button to your post or blog {the code is in my sidebar} OR place a text link at the end of your post. I would love for you to help me spread the word!
• Follow along with Facebook to see if you have been featured throughout the week. I will also be back to showcase some of my favorite ideas for my Sunday Sparks.
• Check out some of the other fabulous links. A few nice comments always inspires us to create more!

Thank-you so much for taking the time to come out and party with me!

My Sunday Sparks {No.58}

Happy Sunday! I hope you all had a fabulous first day of fall yesterday. I am almost finished up my fall decorating and will hopefully have things {somewhat!} completed by the end of the weekend.  And then I will have a couple of restful weeks before the Halloween decorating begins...

It was another great week of link ups at last week's Creative Spark. There was so much amazing fall inspiration!  As always, I loved going through your projects and looking though your blogs.  Here are a few of the fun projects shared...

These fabric leaves from Uncommon are so cute!  Such a great way to customize your pumpkin!

Ode to Inspiration created a beautiful fall mantel.  I really need that window!!

I love these sweater pumpkins from Priscillas.  So cozy for fall!

Check out this non-traditional fall tablescape from Design Stash.  I just love the color scheme and all of her little details {you need to see the place cards!}

For those of you who are not really into decorating for fall, here is one of my favorite pallet projects that I have come across.  Head on over to Blooming Homestead for the tutorial.

And keeping with the {mostly} fall theme, why don't you grab one of these delicious pumpkin scones from Will Cook for Smiles?  Such a great way to celebrate fall! 

Thank-you so much to everyone who came out and partied with me at last week's Creative Spark. Your support is so appreciated and I love having a chance to connect with you!  If you were featured here or on my Facebook page, feel free to grab a featured button from my sidebar.  

For all of you on Pinterest, we always love it when you pin our ideas!  Just please click over to the featured post so the idea gets linked back to the original source.  I have also created a pinterest board for all of these amazing projects and will continue to pin all of the featured ideas each week.  You can find me here!

Wishing you all a wonderful Sunday! 

It's Fall Y'All!

Happy First Day of Fall! I hope you are all enjoying your weekend! 

I finally got around to changing up our chalkboard in the kitchen! {it may or may not have said something about Spring...} It is always one of those projects that I look at multiple times per day and think that I better get around to doing something with it. 

I think I should be good until Christmas now!  See you soon!

I linked up with Funky Junk Interiors, Uncommon, Thrifty Decor Chick, Today's Creative Blog, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Home Stories A to Z, Under the Table and Dreaming, Alderberry Hill, Be Different Act Normal, Tatertots and Jello, The Frugal Girls, 30 Handmade Days, Thrifty Decor Chick, Tidy Mom, Design Dining and Diapers, Chic on a Shoestring, Somewhat Simple, Live Laugh Rowe, Stone Gable, The 36th Avenue, Lil Luna, Savvy Southern Style, Tip Junkie, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Skip to my Lou, Craft-O-Maniac, DIY Showoff, I Heart Naptime and Positively Splendid.

Cookie Cup Ice Cream Mice

Well, I know tomorrow is officially the first day of fall but the weather around here has just been so nice that we are still kind of in summer mode.  The mornings and evenings are getting colder but by the time mid-day hits, it feels like we are in the middle of August.  

The boys favorite summertime treat {by far!} is ice cream and we have definitely eaten our fair share this summer.  The boys loved going down to the grocery store and picking out their toppings.

 {ice cream set from Superstore}

Since our summertime ice cream days on the patio are coming to an end, I thought I would make something a little different for the boys and we ended up creating these cookie cup ice cream mice.

{I would have taken a better picture but I had about 5 seconds before the boys attacked him}. 

To make the cookie cups, we just turned over a muffin tin and placed the cookie batter on top.  We baked the cookies for the typical time, let them cool slightly, and then trimmed the bottoms.  There were lots of little cookie bits left to sample!

For the mice, the boys added mini Oreos for the ears, a Smartie for the nose {these are the chocolate Canadian Smarties!} and some candy eyes.  The Whiskers are made from chocolate coated cookie sticks called Pokies.  Licorice would probably look better but it is pretty much the one candy that the boys don't like!

Wishing you all a fabulous, ice-cream filled, last day of summer!!!

I linked up with Tidy Mom, Design Dining and Diapers, Chic on a Shoestring, Live Laugh Rowe, The 36th Avenue, Lil Luna, Tip Junkie, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Skip to my Lou, Craft-O-Maniac, I Heart Naptime, Positively Splendid, Funky Junk and Tatertots and Jello.

Fall Sign

Okay, I know this is pretty much the easiest project ever.  It did require some gluing though so it can still be considered a craft, right? {just humor me on this one}

This little sign actually ended up being one of my favorite fall decorations this year and kind of happened by accident.

 Last summer I picked up some driftwood while we were on a camping trip.  I used one piece for this  sign in our master bathroom and the rest remained out in our garage.  My hubby has been threatening to throw it out for a while now so I figured I better do something with it quickly!

I had some wooden letters from the dollar store that I purchased a couple of years ago but they kind of just faded into the background.  It is amazing how much better they looked when they were glued onto the driftwood!  I was actually going to stain the driftwood but kind of liked the rustic look.

Sometimes the simplest projects end up being your favorite.  Who knew?

Have a wonderful day!

 I linked up with Funky Junk Interiors, Thrifty Decor Chick, Under the Table and Dreaming, Alderberry Hill, Be Different Act Normal, The Frugal Girls, Thrifty Decor Chick, Somewhat Simple, Live Laugh Rowe, Stone Gable, The 36th Avenue, Lil Luna, Savvy Southern Style, Tip Junkie, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Skip to my Lou, Craft-O-Maniac, The DIY Showoff, I Heart Naptime, Positively Splendid, Funky Junk, Tatertots and Jello, Crafty Scrappy Happy, Tidy Mom, Chic on a Shoestring, At the Picket Fence and Shabby Art Boutique.