This is the perfect fall craft, and you can incorporate it any way you want! Make a timeline for a deployed loved one (just add twine and hang), include in boxes for friends, or mail to grandparents…the list could go on and on! We created these to hand out to our neighbors, and it made for a fun afternoon!

Supplies:

• Construction Paper or Fall Paper
• Leaf Template
• Scissors
• Glue
• Chocolates

Directions:

1. Print off template.
2. Cut out template.
3. Trace template on fun/fall paper.
4. Cut out colorful leaf.
5. Write fall greeting leaving room for candy.
6. Glue candy down onto leaf.
7. Allow to dry.
8. Deliver some fall fun!

Super easy right?? I used construction paper I already had at the house, and the candy was left over from my last chocolate binge session. There are tons of cute papers in the stores now, and you can create so many different patterns and shapes with these! We choose colorful leaves to celebrate the changing of the seasons!

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Supplies:

• Colored Permanent Markers
• Rubbing Alcohol
• White T-shirt
• Piece of cardboard
• Small Dropper
• Cup (optional)

Directions:

• Place the cardboard between the front and back of your T-shirt to prevent the Markers from soaking through and create dot patterns making sure not to place the dots too closely together because the ink will spread and you want to be able to see and enjoy each color.

• Be mindful of colors that will look good when bled together – yellow and orange, blue and purple, etc.
• Using complimentary colors too closely together may end in a muddy looking mess.
• My favorite color combinations were fuchsia with red and turquoise with green!

• We threw in some lines and swirlies but the dots turned out the best.
• Use a variety of large and small dots!

• Once you are done with your drawing, you will drop Rubbing Alcohol onto the middle of your designs to get the colors to spread out into a tie dye effect!
• Using a cup may make this process a bit easier for you if you made circular patterns.
• Secure the T-shirt around a cup using a rubber band (or just hold it taut with your hands) and drop a few splatters of Rubbing Alcohol smack dab in the middle of the design.

• To get the colors to spread out farther, add more Rubbing Alcohol to the center of your design.
• The faster you drop, the easier the ink will spread without being absorbed by the cotton.

• Once you are satisfied with your tie dye job, remove the cardboard and put your T-shirt in the dryer for 20 minutes to set the marker.

• Then, put it on and ROCK IT!

Notes:

• The fun part is coming up with any wild design your heart desires!

This was a fun task for me and my kiddos! I hope you family enjoys their new designs!

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We made and/or “attempted” to make four leaf clovers on a canvas. I got my oldest child’s fingerprints on this canvas. It was very easy, and he really enjoyed it.

Supplies:

• Paint
• Canvas
• Paintbrushes

Directions:

• Make fingerprint 4-leaf clovers.
• Use your fingers or a paintbrush to paint a rainbow.

Anytime you are doing a craft with an actual child it’s not going to be perfect. It’s definitely an original. I am actually hoping to start doing more of these canvases. There’s nothing like getting a child’s perspective by handing them paint and a canvas and just say, “paint me a picture.” We hope you have a Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

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Supplies:

• Scraps of Cotton Fabric
• Rice
• Needle & Thread
• Funnel
• Fun Shaped Scissors (optional)

Directions:

• Cut your fabric into the shape of your choice.
• Stitch your shape leaving about a quarter inch from the edges, leave about a half inch open before closing.
• Use a funnel, or simply pour from your hand and fill your warmer with rice and finish stitching!

THAT’S IT! This super simple project is such a hit! I had my kids write their own Valentine’s Day card and send it with their handwarmers. These can be reused, warm in a microwave for 30 seconds and be careful when taking them out!

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Ya’ll know how it is – big plans, but then you get home and sit down. Motivation GONE! I sat staring at the items I had laid out in my office, but I was so tired I didn’t have the want to get up and put it all together. My son came in to see what I was doing, and when I told him I was thinking, he got to work! It took him less than five minutes to put this together, and it looks fabulous! Really ya’ll – kids can do these for your table! They love to help get ready for company, and this was his way to contribute to the festivities.

What you will need:

• Decorative Bowl
• Fake Leaves
• Fake Veggies (or really anything that you want to use)

Directions:

1. Lay the leaves in the bottom of the bowl, and fluff just a little to give it a full look
2. Add in your veggies or decorative items
3. DONE!

See how simple that was? Two steps and finished. Now, I found this stuff at the thrift store, so this entire centerpiece cost me less than 5.00! Now that is thrifty, and these things looked brand new! I was really pleased with the finished product and my son is excited about his “artwork.” Definitely a win win! Get your crafty side on this holiday season and share your creations with us here!

This acorn tree certainly fits perfectly with my autumn decor and it has such a unique, au naturel look. And it’s probably the cheapest tree I’ve bought or made – I only spent $2 on the styrofoam cones from the dollar store!! Add this to your project list this fall and then leave it out through winter as well with some red berries sprinkled around the bottom, perhaps!

This is all you need:

• Styrofoam cone (can be found at dollar stores or craft supply stores)
• Hot glue gun
• ACORNS! Lots of them. In all different sizes.

I initially decided to make 2 acorn trees. Because I could only find one-size styrofoam cone, I cut the base off of one to make it shorter than the other for some fun diversity. And then I only ended up completing one tree anyway.

Step 1) Start at the base of the cone and hot glue acorns forming a spiral up towards the top of the cone. Once you get about half way up the cone, start forming second and third lines to make sure you can make everything fit. You want to end up with hardly any white styrofoam showing through.

Step 2) You don’t have to worry about straight spiral lines through the entirety of the tree – fill in little acorns in places that you can make them fit. The spiraling just gives it a more interesting look rather than gluing the acorns straight across in rows. Finish your tree off with a few acorns on the very tip top!

For my next tree I may spray paint the styrofoam cone a gold color before gluing on the acorns to help hide the white that shows through the acorns in some places. Either way, I think it’s beautiful! My husband thought I was crazy when I had bags and bags full of those little nuts but agreed afterwards that my Acorn Tree turned out very nicely. Hopefully our neighborhood squirrels aren’t too hungry now!

Would you give this a try?? I’d love to see your results! How else have you brought the outdoors into your home??

For more awesome DIY projects, check out MyMilitarySavings.com!

For those reasons my husband has restricted the amount of times I am allowed to visit that store, although he hasn’t quite set a spending limit for me yet. HA! But I love and respect him so I’ve decided I will not go broke trying to decorate my house country chic. That’s what I keep telling myself, anyway. “I will not, I will not, I will not… oh hey – what’s that new fall collection I see over there!? No! Stay on track! I will not, I will not, I will not…”

That being said, I’ve decided to try and decorate my living room with a bunch of DIY projects that LOOK like I spent a lot of money on them. I mean, who doesn’t love a nice, simple craft that appears store-worthy!? I currently have a fascination with orb balls so that was first on my list of things to-do this month. And the absolute BEST part of this whole project is that it didn’t cost me more than $5!!!! Cha-ching! Plus, it looks fantabulous next to my aluminum windmill Hobby Lobby just had on sale… just sayin’…

(In all seriousness, Hobby Lobby is a fantastic store and has great prices. I am in no way, shape, or form, demeaning it or trying to portray a poor image of it. This blog is all in fun!)

In order to whip one of these DIY Orbs up, this is all that you’ll need!

• 2 embroidery hoops, same size
• A brown paint or wood stain
• Paintbrush

Step 1) Separate the embroidery hoops and paint each piece. (You should have 4 pieces from 2 hoops.)

Step 2) Criss-cross the 2 inside hoops that do not have the metal attachment on them (as shown in the first photo below.) Then add the remaining 2 hoops with the metal clasps in an opposite criss-cross pattern around the first hoops that you put together. It’s like making an asterisk symbol or a snowflake… you start with an X and then add more lines horizontally and vertically. Once your orb is put together, tighten the metal clamps to secure the hoops in place!

Voila!

I love the simplicity of it, and it offers endless decorating possibilities. It resembles a globe and is bursting with drama… I just adore these orb decorations. What do you think?? Is this something you could rock in your house? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

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In the spirit of all things autumn… I was inspired by RootAndBlossom to create this delicate little hand print leaf and this dainty pumpkin footprint. In the original blog, this craft was made into a banner with twine and clothes pins. I think that is a fantastic idea, and I plan on sitting my little one down to make a few more of these beauties with me so I can do just that with different fall-colored paper!! 

All I needed was:

• Yellow and orange construction paper
• Red and orange paint
• Brown and green markers
• Scissors
• Paintbrush

Step 1) Paint those hands and feet and stamp ’em on your paper! I used orange for the foot (which will be a pumpkin) and red for the hand (which will be an autumn leaf).

Step 2) With a brown marker, add a stem and the veins to your “leaf.”

Step 3) With the brown marker, trace the outside of your pumpkin and add a few groove marks. With the green marker, add a vine and some leaves!

Step 4) Cut your prints out in the general shape of a leaf and pumpkin. This would also be a great time to laminate them if you’d like! Don’t forget to add the child’s name and date to the back! 🙂

This craft is simple, fun, kid-friendly, and festive for the fall season!

“If a year was tucked inside of a clock, then Autumn would be the magic hour.” – Victoria Erickson

For more hand and footprint art, check out my other craft blogs:

Birdie and Owl Prints

Flipflop Prints

3D Hand Print

Valentine’s Hand Print Tree

Back to School Footprint

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I’m totally kidding. I am such a frugal person that I’d rather labor day and night to recreate something I saw in a store. Plus, it feels really good to look at something you made and think, “Yep. I did that!” So the BEST DIY projects I have found are the ones that don’t take forever to put together and that are actually fairly simple but look amazing. Such as… this Americana star for your outdoor living space! Or it would even be a fantastic piece to place over a fireplace, too! And it cost me $3 (for a box of screws) and took less than 2 hours. SCORE! My favorite thing about it is that I was able to repurpose an old beat up pallet that was destined for the trash and turn it into something I am proud to display.

Make an afternoon project out of this! This is all that you’ll need:

• an old pallet, separated
• screws (I used 1 and 5/8th inch)
• white paint

Step 1) Break your pallet down into pieces. You’ll need 5 slats of wood to create the star. I didn’t mind that some pieces were splitting or broken at the edges – it adds to the old and weathered effect!

Step 2) If dirty, give your slats a little scrub. You can assemble the star while it is wet but will have to wait for it to dry to paint it.

Step 3) Arrange the star the way you like it on the ground and assemble it section by section. I chose screws instead of nails because it was easiest with my electric drill, but nails would work fine, too. Typically people choose nails over screws to prevent the wood from splitting but in this case, it doesn’t matter! Some splitting adds character.

Every end piece that you are connecting together will lay nicely on top of each other, but there will be some gaps throughout the middle of the star where pieces cross over each other but will not lay flush on top of one another. This is fine. You can fill in the gaps with small chunks of wood or leave the gaps as is.

Step 4) With white paint, use a dry brush to spread the paint over random sections of the wood, without covering it all. There should be more bare wood visible than white paint when you are done. Imagine that this star was completely white 50 years ago and had been left outside on the side of some barn, forgotten about. The way you would find it after all of those years is the way that you want this thing to look now! After I wiped a few strokes of white paint over each wooden slat, I took a chain and smacked the wood a few times to put little ding marks into it. Totally optional there but I would recommend it if you’re feeling a little frustrated. Haha.

Step 5) Step back and observe! Notice I didn’t bother sanding the slats or anything – it’s completely raw wood with a lot of natural beauty.

Then place it for everyone to admire!

Easy, right!? The hardest part is probably locating an old pallet if you haven’t had anything delivered to your house on one (like sodding or a new AC unit… whatever.) They happen to be building a new donut shop in our town and let me ransack their pallet piles by the dumpster!

My next pallet project was a gorgeous shelf that I hung by my front door – stay tuned for my blog on how to DIY!

And now, I am working on a pallet bookshelf…

It’s a beauty, huh? And costs next to nothing – compare that to some furniture stores!!!

I’d love to hear any feedback from you! Leave me a comment below, and send photos of any of your repurposed pallet work!

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I was so excited to find this, that as soon as I got home, I went to the store, grabbed a couple of shirts, paint and brushes and set to work. I asked my boys their favorite super hero, got online and found an image that I could use, and adjusted it to the sizing I wanted. I printed it off, and traced it to the back of the shirt. The painting took the most time, but I had it set up to where I could do one shirt, then work on the other while the first dried a bit. By the time I was done, I was very pleased with the end results. When my boys woke up the next morning they were over the moon excited with their new capes! Get ready to turn your kids into their favorite super hero – or even one they made up themselves!!

What you need:

• Extra Large T-shirt
• Acrylic paints – the colors your kids choose to have on their capes
• Paint Brushes
• Box to put underneath where you are painting (this keeps it from getting onto your floor or table)

Directions:

• Cut the back off the shirt. You will want to leave the neck, but take the sleeves and front of the shirt off.
• Lay out and trace design onto the back of the cape
• Paint your fingers off!
• Let dry and ENJOY!

Break down of cost:

• T-shirt – 5.00
• Paint – 10.00
• Paint brushes – 6.00

Before you look as say, its not cost effective, the paint I bought had enough in there for me to do two shirts, and still had an almost full bottle of paint. I can re-use these for future crafts. If you keep your paint brushes cleaned out, they can also be used for quite a while before they have to be replaced. I am looking forward to creating new items!!  Left over paints can be used to create new capes as the ones they have wear out. All you will need is a shirt! You can even take an older shirt from home and create that way!

SUPER easy way to turn your kids into their own super hero!! The painting took me about six hours, as I needed to add several layers of paint. The shirts absorb it to a point, so I went over and over the sections until I was pleased with the results. Older kids can work on these themselves, so they can create their own designs. Halloween is quickly approaching, so if you want to make your own costume this year – you literally cannot go wrong!  These are not only for kids! Adults can make their own as well, if they choose!

Have a SUPER day!!