How To-zday: Fall Garland~*

As I mentioned the other day, Thing 1-- my 19 year old, living-in-an-apartment-down-the-road daughter-- came by Cecilia for a fall decoration craft day on Sunday.  Well, technically I crafted, she baked stuff...

Mmmmm....pumpkin bars~*

and made a diorama for a set design class she is in.

She can glue gun fake trees like a junior in college. WAIT, she is a junior in college!  There ya go then, our college tuition dollars at work~*

I did a bunch of stuff, & started a bunch more stuff & will be posting all the stuffs as the days go by.

For today's post I'm focusing on Part I of Project Mantel.  

Here is the summer mantel. 

Actually, its more accurate to call it the mantel that summer left behind than it is to call it a summer mantel.  What had been a clean & crisp summer mantel-scape has become a repository for whatever.  Why is there a heart garland?  I got bored, that's why.  You may recognize the monkey & squirrel I painted for a post a while back {& the painted-blue brother squirrel's tail that I also painted but didn't post about is visible on the left}.  Thing 2 bought me a vintage 1977 issue of Aquaman while on a track trip a few weekends ago.  Yeah, I like Aquaman.  I know, I know, but he could hitchhike on dolphins so that makes him at least a little cool right?  It will eventually be framed and displayed proudly in my office.  The tin soldiers {in blue on the left & brown on the right of the mantelpiece} are my husband's collection from the World War I era.  Things 2 & 3 were using the candlesticks as battlements & at one point had created a cardboard dividing wall & a full blown skirmish.   Yeah.  Now they are on a well deserved leave.
The artwork is from Etsy artists Eszter Schalle & Cori Dantini while the partially squirrel-obscured piece is a book illustration by Dan Adel.  The bust on the hearth is of Augustus-- why, where do you keep your bust of a Roman emperor?  The black thing next to him is an old wooden violin case, just because it is.  The other who-zee-whats-its are bits & pieces amassed, collected &/or created as the summer rolled by.

Part I of Project Mantel focused on doing a fall inspired garland.  

Supplies:

1.  Fabric scraps in fall colors

2.  Firm fusible interfacing to attach to fabric to prevent fraying & give the leaves a little body

3.  Jute twine

4.  Paper leaf pattern-- feel free to copy, paste,  then print up in the size you need

For whatever deep & profound reason, odd numbers are the most visually pleasing.  I used 5 different fabrics & 3 leaf patterns & made each leaf one time in each fabric for a 15 leaf garland.  You could also use felt or heavy paper which would mean you could skip attaching the interfacing.  As it happened, I had ordered a bunch of fabrics from Fabric Mart a while back for skirts & as a bonus they threw in a metric ton of interfacing {I'm exaggerating only slightly}, so I was good to go.  I rifled through the scrap bin at the fabric store to supplement my scrap supply at home, ironed the interfacing to the backs of the scraps, then I got to cutting & creating.

Part I of Project Mantel accomplished in record time.  Augustus totally approves.   

Right after I took the pictures, I stripped the rest of the stuff off the mantel {I had taken down the capiz shell chandelier earlier}.  I should have cleared it before I took the pics, but I was excited with how the garland turned out & didn't think of it.  The logical order for projects doesn't get much play in Cecilia...

Got any autumn decor ideas to share? I'm always looking for new trouble to get in {I guess that is where Thing 1 gets her diorama skillz lol}~*

Polka Dots & Lemonade

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