Autumn decor – simple and inexpensive autumn crafts for the home

Autumn is a second Spring when every leaf is a flower – Albert Camus, French philosopher, author and journalist. I must agree as I watch the hardworking flowers from my garden slowly die back allowing leaves from the surrounding trees to lay down their dense and colourful carpet. And not for the first time I muse, autumn is my favourite time of year. Wood burners both in the home and over at Belles start their work, taking away early morning and evening chills and candles and fairy lights play their part in both starting and ending the cooler days. And I find my mind full of autumn crafts to share as we enjoy the slow shift towards early autumn decor. So today I have a few seasonal crafts to share which I know will look just perfect in your home too…

Autumn Crafts – seasonal garlands

We shall begin our autumn decor with two super easy and seasonal garlands to decorate virtually any space you would like. The first one could not be more simple. I used a small star paper punch not dissimilar to this one although of course you may wish to vary the size of your stars and I chose brown and orange card stock I already had. And to add a lighter tone to this autumn craft, I punched out a few cream stars too. Using a glue stick, I stuck the reverse side of a brown star to an orange star so when the garland moves there is variation. You can follow this tutorial to put the garland together using a basic running stitch on your sewing machine. And if you don’t have a machine you could always glue the stars together with the cotton sandwiched between the two pieces of card.

This simple garland looks at home supporting an autumnal arrangement, against a plain wall and as with all garlands, just perfect paired with twinkling lights. It’s staying a while on this dusty old book shelf offering a taste of autumn to our mostly undecorated study.  And as with so many crafts, this star garland could be simplified still further, using just one colour card or paper or perhaps even jazzed up with stick on jewels and gemstones like these. As the saying goes, the possibilities are endless.

Next up our second autumn craft features foraged acorns, pine cones and all manner of natures autumn bounty. Using a length of rustic string, I’ve threaded and stuck natures finds combining them with tiny cream pom-poms from the fabric box and these inexpensive and cute wooden pumpkins. Finally a few tiny card stars again and this second quick and seasonal craft is complete and ready to add autumn decor to a chosen corner.

As soon as this pretty autumn craft was finished I added it to our kitchen dresser. Since then it has migrated to those decorative hooks you first saw here, this time joining the darker hues of dried dahlia heads to add to the autumn decor mood.

Autumn Decor – pumpkin fever

One evening last week Mr M telephoned me from the local supermarket he’d stopped by on his way home from work. “The pumpkins are in” he covertly whispered “shall I bring some home?” “Oh yes please” I replied “I’ll have seven little ones and three of the large.” He said he received odd looks from the check out assistant and not wishing to engage in the inevitable “what are you going to do with those?” conversation, he kept his head down and quickly paid and left. Of course the pumpkins are currently being put to good use in my seasonal Instagram photos. They will earn their keep further by playing their part in adding autumn decor to our home. Like many, I am partial to a pumpkin or two. I am not overly fussed by the colour orange though so in an attempt to colour coordinate my haul with my sitting room decor, two of the mini ones received a quick coat of my favourite pink paint.

For one of the larger pumpkins I had another autumn craft idea inspired by this YouTube video I recently saw. I began by cutting strips from a shirt of Mr M’s, purchased sometime ago when he went through a short-lived floral stage. Using PVA glue, I stuck strips of the shirt to the pumpkin working my way around until it was completely dry. Once dry however I soon discovered the cotton was too thin and the orange of the pumpkin could be seen through the floral fabric and I was not best pleased.

I dug deep in my fabric pile and found a thicker material in a rather pleasant and seasonal green and again began cutting and fastening strips of the fabric to the base of the pumpkin with coordinating dressmaker pins. Then I applied glue to the pumpkin and stuck each strip of fabric down securely.

I had purposely cut the strips longer than I needed in order to create a decorative ruffle at the top of the pumpkin where the stem would ordinarily be. I gathered up the ruffle, secured it with an elastic band and tied natural raffia around for an individual take on a fabric covered pumpkin.

I think the green pumpkin looks rather fetching with my pastel pink minis. I also found a piece of checked material at the bottom of the fabric pile and had a quick go at a mini pumpkin stuffed with toy filling. I glued a real dried stem from a home-grown courgette I had saved earlier in the summer on the top. As you can see, there is no need for any professional pumpkin makers to be alarmed.

And autumn decor continues to weave its way through our home…

Last year I shared more autumn decor ideas for the home keeping the orange pumpkins in their natural colourful state which you may enjoy a quick read of with your coffee. And if you haven’t yet met Doris you may like to check out her seasonal wardrobe here too. I do hope you feel happy to try one or more of these autumn crafts yourself and if you do, please do share. I love to see and hear how you interpret my ideas and sharing in turn inspires so many others. I leave you this week with these super sweet and seasonally scented mini pumpkins. Aren’t they just the cutest? You can find the link to purchase some of your own from the lovely Sarah at The Blueberry Patch on her Instagram account. Enjoy your own start to autumn and if you like, I’ll meet you back here next week for more seasonal treats x