I went all out with my front porch decorating this year--some might say (e.g., my husband), that I went a little over the top. Well, maybe I did! I love how it came out though.

What do you think?



For the doorway, I used a wreath that I bought several years ago from AC Moore. I also put three strings of leaf garland around the door and another string around each railing going down. I bought the flowers and the ribbon at the bottom of the railings from a local nursery.

The most labor-intensive projects were the pumpkin topiaries. Here's how I did it:

Supplies:
2 planters
Pumpkins--I used craft pumpkins so I could drill through them
2 Wooden dowels
2 Foam cake forms
Spray paint (if desired)
Drill

Steps:
1. If desired, spray paint your pumpkins. For my porch, I sprayed the two small pumpkins silver. I also sprayed a light coat of white paint on the top of the second pumpkins down because I though the orange was a little bright.

2. Drill a hole through the bottom and top of all of the pumpkins except the highest ones (only drill a hole in the bottom of those).

3. Put the wooden dowel through each of the pumpkins, stacking them.

4. Put the bottom of the dowels into the cake forms for stability (otherwise mine kept tipping over).

Inspirations:
Love the look and feel of this porch from decorchick.com
Another great porch from BHG.com

I've always been a fan of paper crafts. I get downright gleeful when I'm in the craft store picking out scrapbook paper. For this project, I wanted to make a banner using supplies that I already had.

I liked the idea of doing a Halloween banner. I was even entertaining the idea about doing a black and silver themed mantel this year. However, there's something about fall greens, oranges, and yellows that makes me happy. So I decided to make a softer banner.

One of my inspirations:
Remodelaholic

Here's my banner:




And here's a picture of the completed mantel:



To make the banner, I used all supplies I already had:

• Various scrapbook paper
• Green ribbon
• Hole punch
• Scissors and paper cutter
• Chipboard letters

I measured the triangles using a ruler--the sides were 6 inches long and the top side was 4 inches long. I used a mini hole punch to make two holes toward the middle of the triangles (I measured these to make them even). I then threaded the ribbon through the holes. After that, I attached the chipboard letters with glue dots onto round paper circles to make them stand out a little more against the scrapbook paper. I then tied the ribbon to the bases of my candle holders and used some fall floral picks to cover the ties.

I am hooked on decorating with yarn right now! It is so easy and cheap. For this post, I wanted to go into more detail on my fall mantel and a couple of the projects I did with yarn.

Inspirations:
The Inspired Room
Thrifty Decor Chick

Making these two projects was really easy! For the letter "O," I just started with making a knot in the yarn around the letter. Then I wrapped it a million times! Over and over and over. I tried to be as neat as possible and to keep a good tension as I was wrapping the letter.