My Fall Mantel: Pumpkin Edition

Mr. Mechanic and I have a cat named Pumpkin so it’s safe to say that we enjoy all things fall. 

She’s gray not orange and her name was first a term of endearment when we decided to rename her after her adoption. She started out life as ‘Peppy’ but is definitely a Pumpkin.

I’m telling you this because Pumpkin was my inspiration for this year’s fall mantel.

I brought my tub of fall decorations upstairs, took out a frame wrapped in butcher paper and walked away for a minute. When I came back upstairs she was sitting right on top of it!

As I unpacked my decor, a pumpkin patch started to grow!

Since it’s Thanksgiving in two weeks, I decorate for fall first and then add touches of Halloween later.

I was already working on a fall sign, so I decided to run with the pumpkin theme this year.

Here it is!

 

From Left to Right:

 

 

 

 

 

I used my Silhouette to create a stencil for my own sign after seeing this T.J. Maxx inspiration on the blog A Bowl Full of Lemons.

 

 

 

 

 

I even made a cameo appearance in my attempt to get a photo that was front and center. Peekaboo!

 

This mantel is a great mix of old, new and a handful of D.I.Y. projects. Just the way I like it!

The two small bottles were cottage finds (the little one is actually an old Buckley’s bottle) and the tall bottle came from Goodwill last year. The braided jute ring is a 50 cent napkin ring from Michaels that I thought looked rustic.

My frame (which Pumpkin was sitting on) is a plastic Dollarama frame that I painted and glazed last fall to bring out the corner details. It is sitting on a book, also from Dollarama, which I wrapped with Kraft paper to cover the title. The edges of the pages have a fantastic texture to them!

The printable was created by Kristin at Simply Klassic Home. You can download your own copy of this beauty here.

The glass acorn was a clearance Michaels find last year in the Thanksgiving decor.  Are you noticing a pattern here?

All of the pumpkins and the sprig of bittersweet (thanks, Bronwyn!) are from Dollarama, Walmart or Michaels. I painted some of them and left others their original colour.  The little orange and yellow pumpkin on the right definitely needs to be a different colour. Any suggestions?

I made the burlap fall banner last year after seeing them everywhere. Super easy. Just burlap, acrylic paint, letter stencils (pre-Silhouette!) and twine.

My owls are from HomeSense (big: 2011, little: 2012) and the metal basket was my only splurge (HomeSense again) because I knew it would be a great way to display my birch logs. I scooped a big branch from my neighbours’ yard before the wood chipper got to it when the hydro company did their line maintenance last winter. Remember my poor tree?

The pumpkin on top is a faux pumpkin from Michaels that I spray painted Heirloom White.

Finally, the white lantern on the floor was a summer 2011 purchase from HomeSense. I filled the base with strips of burlap, pinecones and mini pumpkins to give it a less summery look.

(In case you’re wondering, that arrowhead plant in the pot lives on the mantel year-round because of how much it hangs so I just work around it. We re-potted it this summer and it loves its new digs!)

 

Thank you so much for checking out my mantel!

 

P.S. Want to know a ridiculously easy way to hang a banner? Check out my trick here!

 

P.P.S. Did you see my fall planter? The mums and asters are really starting to fill out now!

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I link up at: Serenity Now, I {Heart} Naptime, Under The Table And Dreaming, Nifty Thrifty Things, Simply Klassic Home, Home Stories A to Z, Craftomaniac, Skip To My Lou, Not JUST A Housewife, A Bowl Full Of Lemons, Alderberry Hill, I Should Be Mopping The Floor, A Diamond In The Stuff, Creatively Living, The Winthrop Chronicles, Clean & Scentsible, Oopsey Daisy, Lil’ Luna, Someday Crafts, Live.Laugh.Rowe, The 36th Avenue, aka design, House of Hepworths, 52 Mantels, Thrifty Decorating, Crafty Scrappy Happy, How To Nest For Less, Tatertots & Jello, The Grant Life, It’s Overflowing, Lolly Jane, Too Much Time, Six Sisters’ Stuff, Positively Splendid, My {Re}purposed Life, Unrefined By Design, Just Us Four, Liz Marie Blog and The Crafted Sparrow

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My Garage Sale Vignette

Before I created my mantel for Canada Day, I had this fun vignette on display.

Since my mantel has proved to be a difficult spot to photograph, I brought it all outside and recreated it on a $5 table that I bought at a Garage Sale last summer. Its previous owner started to refinish it and then gave up. We’ll see what happens now that I’m responsible for its makeover!

I started with the two books and then the vignette grew from there.

I found A Manual of Style at a Used Book Sale on the March Break. I loved the colour and I thought that the title would be good for decorating (I think it’s actually about writing, not fashion/decor).

All About House Plants came from a Rummage Sale at the church up the street from me. Again, I loved the colour (turquoise and green are my go-to colours for decorating) and I knew that it would be useful for honing my green thumb.

The basket reminded me of chicken wire and was a 99 cent purchase from the impulse buy section near the checkout at HomeSense.  I might paint it a different colour sometime down the road.

The neutral-coloured globe was from Michaels and I used a 50% off coupon when I bought it so it was $2.50 (I told you that you’d be seeing it again!).

So, if you’re keeping score, that’s well under $10 for this quartet, but it needed something more. [I’m a poet!]

Enter a $1 wooden planter that I bought from my neighbour’s Garage Sale at the beginning of June.

I like prices when I go to Garage Sales so I didn’t even try to negotiate, I just gave her my loonie. The planter even has a removable metal plate to line the bottom.

With a little bit of . . .

intentionally frayed burlap,

a stencil created and cut with my Silhouette,

black paint,

Heirloom White spray paint,

spray adhesive and

Walnut Stain distress ink . . .

the planter was transformed into this!

 

 

 

 

How’s that for a Cinderella makeover!?

But what about the plant?

I will admit, it cost about $10 but it is unlike any house plant I’ve ever seen!

We found it at Home Depot and it was with the succulents. I thought it was a bit expensive but I just couldn’t walk away from it.

(Last year, I had a similar love-at-first-sight experience with a succulent called Baby’s Toes. Sadly, it did not like the living conditions of my house . . .)

Mr. Mechanic caught on to my ‘subtle hint’ and put it in the cart. I’m a lucky lady!

Unfortunately, it was tagless, so I have no idea what kind of succulent it is, but the different shades of green on all of the stems are stunning!

It almost has an ombre quality to it.

The tips are a yellow-y green colour while further down they are darker.

Put it all together and we’re back to this fun little vignette.

 

I love, love, LOVE it!

It looks even better on my mantel with the Living Room paint colour (which I promise is lovely in person but blah on camera), a handful of painted bottles and my new HomeSense pot that is a mix of, you guessed it, turquoise and green!

Hmmm . . . maybe I should find a way to add my made over garage sale owl to the mix, too!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Happy 4th of July to all my American readers!

 

P.S. Check out another painted Cinderella makeover here!

P.P.S. Did you enter my giveaway? What are you waiting for! (Closes midnight on July 5th)

P.P.P.S. In case you’re wondering, the 3 is for our September 3rd anniversary. I’m sneaky that way!

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I link up at: Serenity Now, I {Heart} Naptime, Under The Table And Dreaming, Nifty Thrifty Things, Simply Klassic Home, Home Stories A to Z, Craftomaniac, Skip To My Lou, Not JUST A Housewife, A Bowl Full Of Lemons, Alderberry Hill, I Should Be Mopping The Floor, A Diamond In The Stuff, Creatively Living, The Winthrop Chronicles, Clean & Scentsible, Oopsey Daisy, Lil’ Luna, Someday Crafts, Live.Laugh.Rowe, The 36th Avenue, aka design, House of Hepworths, 52 Mantels, Thrifty Decorating, Crafty Scrappy Happy, How To Nest For Less, Tatertots & Jello, The Grant Life, It’s Overflowing, Lolly Jane, Too Much Time, Six Sisters’ Stuff, Positively Splendid, My {Re}purposed Life, 413 Sparrow Lane, Dragonfly Designs, Just Us Four and The Crafted Sparrow

Thank you to all the hosts!

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Canada Day Mantel and Free Printables

July 1st, 2012 will be Canada’s 145th birthday. To celebrate my Canadian roots, I made my first ever Canada-themed mantel!

I dipped into my stash of red decor from my Valentine’s Day mantel, and then added some Canadian touches.

The license plate was something that Mr. Mechanic pulled out of our fireplace when he attempted to repair the masonry. The previous owners modified the size of the firebox and tried to fill the gap between the bricks by stuffing it full of random metal garbage. We found at least 6 plates, but this one was definitely in the best shape.

The Pop Shoppe bottle brings back memories of drinking Lime Rickey pop at my Grandparents’ house growing up. It was originally bottled very close to where I live. There was always a crate of these hiding in a closet somewhere. This is a fairly new bottle, but I have a crate full of these waiting for me up north in the shed at the cottage.

The globe was from Michaels and I bought it with a 50% off coupon so it only cost me $2.50. You will see it popping up in another vignette that I created with some fun garage sale finds.

The flag artwork is my first Canada Day printable created using the digital scrapbooking software My Memories Suite.

I created an 8 x 10 printable that has a background made up of all the names of Canada’s provinces and territories.

{Download your own copy here!}

I also created a second My Memories Suite printable that is not shown on the mantel.

The burlap paper effect that I chose for the background has a more rustic look to it that did not go as well with the white of my other mantel decor. It is on display in my Kitchen instead.

{Download your own copy here}

On the other side of the mantel, you will spy this little vignette.

Of course, I had to include some red paint chips in my Canada Day decor!

I lined a Gem mason jar (made in Canada) with a large paint chip and also used one as the background in my Michaels dollar bin frame. I happened to have a package of Canada-themed charms from a Walmart clearance jewelry purchase last year. My school hosted a Canadian citizenship ceremony so I wore a flag charm on my necklace to show some Canadian patriotism. I mounted the charm onto the paint chip with a foam dot.

The ombre artwork was created in Silhouette Studio using this tutorial and the Print and Cut feature. It was so easy! Even if you don’t have a Silhouette machine, the software is free to download and there is a free weekly shape released every Tuesday.

I also created my banner with my Silhouette and my favourite pennant shape.

I cut three red pennants, four white pennants and two maple leaves (divided in half). Then, I attached the maple leaves to the white pieces with spray adhesive.

Once the pieces were cut and assembled, I used a punch tool to add silver eyelets and then threaded all the pieces onto red and white Baker’s twine.

I knew that I wanted to use an odd number of pennants so it worked out perfectly that the center piece of red could tie together both flags.

That’s it!

I had so much fun putting together all the elements of my Canada Day mantel. I hope that if you’re a Canadian you might include one of my printables in your decor this July 1st!

Come back tomorrow for the giveaway details on how to win your own copy of My Memories Suite!

P.S. Check out my other seasonal mantels here, here and here!

P.P.S. The red bandana was just a Dollar Store purchase.

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I link up at: Serenity Now, I {Heart} Naptime, Under The Table And Dreaming, NiftyThrifty Things, Simply Klassic Home, Home Stories A to Z, Craftomaniac, Skip To My Lou, Not JUST A Housewife, A Bowl Full Of Lemons, Alderberry Hill, I Should Be Mopping The Floor, A Diamond In The Stuff, Creatively Living, The Winthrop Chronicles, Clean & Scentsible, Oopsey Daisy, Lil’ Luna, Live.Laugh.Rowe, The 36th Avenue, aka design, House of Hepworths, 52 Mantels, Thrifty Decorating, Crafty Scrappy Happy, How To Nest For Less, Tatertots & Jello, The Grant Life, It’s Overflowing, Lolly Jane, Too Much Time, Six Sisters’ Stuff, Positively Splendid, My {Re}purposed Life, Just Us Four and The Crafted Sparrow

Thank you to all the hosts!

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Stencilled & Distressed Sign Tutorial

I’m back with the details on how I made my newest sign which is also the star of my revamped spring mantel.

After the daffodil incident, I decided that things needed to be shuffled around on the mantel. I wanted to add a sign or printable, but was coming up empty in the inspiration department.

Hours of Pinterest searching later, it suddenly dawned on me that I could have the best of both worlds – a sign that was both Spring-y and meaningful. Our street name is Glenrose and we moved here in 2008!  FYI, I went with the ‘Glenrose Seed Company’ because it is too early for roses but not too early for planting seeds.

I designed the stencil for my sign in Silhouette Studio and cut it out using contact paper. After removing the unnecessary pieces, I applied a strip of clear contact paper on top of the stencil to transfer the placement of my letters and the rose.

Then, I got hung up again on the technique to use for painting my sign. I consulted my D.I.Y. Wall Art board and found this great tutorial from Funky Junk Interiors. 26 000+ pins can’t be wrong!

Using acrylic paint (black, white, turquoise and green) and a Dollar Store paintbrush, this is what I did to make my “old” sign from a new piece of pine board.

{Disclaimer: I did this project in my basement so the progress photos are far from stellar}

After I weeded my stencil, I was left with this.

You could see that my white paint bled under the stencil in places. That, and it just looked too new.

No worries!

With a little TLC from my orbital sander and 220 grit sandpaper, my ‘new’ sign got a lot older.

After distressing, the turquoise and green that I used for my base coat peek through, imperfections from my stencilling are gone and the sign looks like it has been hanging outside for a few years.

If you are going to make your own sign, my two tips would be:

• Use a bristled brush, not a foam brush. Brush marks and uneven coverage are good.
• Paint the letters of your sign the same way that you would print them so that the brush strokes change directions.

Next time, I would like to try this with black text and a white background!

Do you have something that is meaningful to your family that you could incorporate into a sign?

Thanks for visiting!

P.S. Check out two other ways to make an ‘old’ sign here and here.

Linking up to these great parties as well as those on my Link Parties page!

Thank you to all the hosts!