Velvet Pumpkin Tutorial

I am not traditional in my Fall decorating. Those of you that have followed me through the years know I am not a fan of Fall. When everyone talks about the beautiful trees changing colors, I think to myself that they were so much prettier green. I am an Oregonian after all, I love our green.

For the last couple years I have been saving pumpkin stems. The other day I saw a velvet pumpkin at my daughter's house that she had bought at an antique store. It made me decide it was time to give it a try and make some velvet pumpkins!

I started by looking for something round to use to trace around. This is a 16 inch circle and makes a good small pumpkin.To make a bigger pumpkin I measured 4 inches out all the way around and cut it out.

This is some velvet that Janae bought me as a gift years ago to recover a chair. I never ended up recovering that chair and I so love the velvet so decided to use a piece to make a pumpkin. This velvet is called something like burnout velvet and is so gorgeous. You can also get cheaper kind of stretchy velvet that works really well. I have seen some people find velvet skirts and things at thrift stores and make them into pumpkins. I am keeping my eye out but haven't found any thrift store velvet yet.

The next thing you do is do a running stitch around the outer edge of the circle. I wanted to use a stronger thread than just the normal kind so all I had is yellow--which worked fine because you really don't see it anyway.

It doesn't have to be perfect by any means and you are just doing this to gather up the top.

Next I just gathered up the top a bit so I could put some beans on the bottom. White beans would be the best if your fabric is see through but I had pinto beans so that is what I went with. This adds weight to the bottom of your pumpkin making it sit nicely. You can also use rice.

After putting some beans on the bottom I filled the rest with stuffing.

At this point I cinched up the threads and went back and forth stitching the top closed.

The next step you can leave out if you want. I went down through the middle with my needle and thread, all the way through to the bottom, made a stitch and then did it a couple more times. This gives it more of a pumpkin shape. If you want a totally round pumpkin then just skip this step.

Next I picked the stem I liked the best on it from my collection of dried stems from the last couple years. There is nothing to drying them--I just let them dry naturally. I put hot glue on the bottom of the stem.

Then I just held the stem in place for a minute.

At this point you can add flowers, pearls or anything you want. I wanted to keep these simple. I added a little twig that the dogs brought in to my white pumpkin and I think it looks really cute.

That is it! They were really easy and they look so cute and Fall like in my home, while still going with my color scheme. I am pleased!

I hope this finds everyone enjoying their day--

Thanks for visiting!

Image Transfer Tutorial

I can't believe school has started. Fall, though I always try to put it off as long as possible, is going to be here. Football is even happening. Ugh. Those of you who have followed my blog through the years know I really dislike Fall.

In an attempt to make myself happy and not think about impending Fall, I have been trying to spend a little time doing one of my favorite things---decorating the house.

I found some wallpaper and I instantly fell in love. All the houses I have lived in previous to this one have been wallpapered top to bottom. After living in our last home for almost 20 years some of the wallpaper had to be taken down. That is not fun and kind of ruined my love affair with wallpaper. Recently I found myself getting a little bit of the wallpaper bug again. Then I found on the perfect wallpaper on a Facebook page. To make a long story short the wallpaper is only in the UK and seemed to be sold out everywhere except one person from Ebay that still had a few rolls. Anyway--when it seemed like I couldn't get it, the planets aligned or something happened and I was able to get it. At this point I am so excited and Fall is far from my mind.

It is bright and cheery--it has roses, clocks, and frames--all things that I love! Also, it looks so nice with my couch slipcovers! Oh yes, it was meant to be. I only had to get a little bit to do a small wall around the fireplace (that we never use). When I get it done I will do a post!

Anyway--so I have had this coffee table for several months that I found on the classifieds. I got it because it was a place to hide Jaxon's toys. He stays here 1 day a week and though he doesn't have a bedroom I like him to have a place that is his.

In my opinion a real ugly duckling--but it served it's purpose well. I always felt like it "brought down the living room" because I like to surround myself and my family with pretty things and this was not pretty. So I took a break from painting things for other people and gave myself a little "be happy" therapy time and painted this for myself. I was so pleased...it looked like it belongs to me now!

I was really happy with how these pretty glass rose knobs I have had waiting to put on this cabinet.

 

Perfect! Well, almost perfect. I had an idea...

...now I am happy!

Since so many of you have asked me for more tutorials I thought I would share how I did this. It isn't the actual wallpaper on the cabinet/coffee table, it is an image transfer.

There are many different ways to do image transfers. About a year ago I took a class from Girl in Pink and she taught us how to use Artisan Enhancements Transfer Gel. It was easy, fun, and so I have always stayed with doing it this way. I figure why change when you find a way that works great?

What you need to do is make a laser copy of the image you want to use. It needs to be printed in reverse image which is easy to do on a copy machine. I like to go to Fed Ex because they have a nice easy to use copy machine and it costs under a dollar.

In this case I wanted the roses to be smaller so I reduced the image when I was printing it--I wish I would have reduced it a little more but it looks fine. Then the cut the pieces of reverse image copies to the size I needed them to be.

Then I applied the medium with one of my favorite paint brushes. (my brushes get well used!)

Notice you apply it to the front of your image. You want that image to transfer to your project.

Then you apply it to your project. Make sure you smooth it out with something to make sure there are no bubbles. I like to use those brown plastic scrubber things they give you when you buy Pampered Chef stoneware. Anything works that you can smooth it out with and get out any excess transfer gel.

Then you wait for it to dry...overnight is good or if in a hurry you can speed it up with a hairdryer. To be honest I forgot I was doing it and left it drying for 24 hours. It was fine. After it is dry you then getting it soaking wet...lol.

The idea now is to remove the paper but leave the gel and the image. It isn't suppose to be perfect so if you scrub off a little of the image just consider it Shabby Chic and continue.

I just use my fingers to rub the paper off, squirt a little more water on it, and rub a little bit more.

After all the paper is rubbed off, wait for it to dry, seal it with Artisan Enhancements Clear Topcoat Sealer and you're done!

I think it is such a fun technique and I hope if some of you try it you will show me what you do!

Back to Fall--I try not to be negative so I want to say something positive about Fall. I love the Fall TV shows! Oh my goodness--all my favorite shows are starting back up and as pathetic as it sounds I am totally excited about it. You'll find me in front of the TV this Fall with a paintbrush, a can of Annie Sloan, and a piece of furniture. 

 

To end this post I want to wish a Happy Birthday 17th birthday to my awesome daughter Chantel. She celebrated her 17th on September 1st, which is also the 4th anniversary of my blog! Thank you to all of you who have followed along with my life the last 4 years and I hope you hang in there for many more years :) 

Thanks for visiting!

Best Day Ever

It has been such a busy summer. Breaking the temperature records has been practically a daily event around here this year. I really feel like I don't know where the summer went! As it is almost time for the kids to go back to school I decided I better hurry up and do the post of my daughter's wedding!

I don't think there is too much I have to say with these photos as they tell the story themselves. Like they say--a picture says a thousand words. The wedding was a wonderful day and being at our home made it even more special to me. It is a wonderful memory to our family and I wanted to share it with everyone.

  

Wow, what great memories!

wedding video 

Thanks for visiting--I hope you enjoyed the wedding!