Monday, August 28, 2017

DIY Pumpkin Pillows


 I have been swooning over all these pretty pumpkin pillows I've seen around Instagram land, but sometimes budget plays a part in my decorating adventures... so I ventured out to create my own Pumpkin Pillows with items I already had on hand.  They are very easy (I'm a sewing rookie) so if I can make these, you can too!  You just need some basic knowledge of how to use a sewing machine.  True story:  Right in the middle of this project my sewing machine stopped working for me.  It kept getting knotted up, and the fabric wouldn't move through.  After messing around with it for a while, I finally called my mom.  That sweet woman, who lives 45 minutes away from me, drove all the way out to save the day... only to find out I had it threaded wrong.  Oi.  I felt horrible that she took half her day just for that.  But what would I do without my sweet mother?!?  Even at 30, I need her every day.  LOL.  But again proof, that if I can make these, you can too.  ;)

 Items needed:

  • sewing machine
  • Scrap fabric
  • scissors
  • hot glue gun
  • twine
  • polly fill, or something to fill your pillow (I used tulle that I had on hand after I ran out of batting.  But you can even just turn these into a slip cover and use a pillow form you already have.  I didn't do that because I didn't have enough scrap fabric to do so.  So small pillows it was!)
I had a tiny bit of this textured white fabric left over from another project, and of course some burlap would make for a cute stem!

 The pattern:  you can easily draw your own, and there are lots of free ones on Pinterest!  I found this one from Shabby Art Boutique for a pumpkin coaster that I knew would be perfect. I also added it to the bottom of this post for easy access.

First cut the whole pumpkin out, and the stem off, like so:
 Trace that first whole piece onto your choice of fabric, and then cut off the outer two wedges of the pumpkin pattern like this:
 Trace your "second" pattern, and cut again the outer two wedges off, so you're left with the center of the pumpkin:
 Trace that last pattern as well as the stem onto your choice of fabric:
 So you will have four pieces like this:
 You will stack them on top of each other to form your pumpkin:
 When sewing your pieces together, start by sewing your second largest piece on top of the largest piece, just keeping on the outer edge of that second piece.  I liked the look of the raw edge, giving the pumpkin more texture.  Continue by sewing on the center piece of the pumpkin, and then pinning the whole pumpkin onto your fabric for the pillow.  I just cut a simple 12x12 square:
 Sew your pumpkin on, again by following along the other edge.  Including the stem:
 After your pumpkin is sewn onto the front of your pillow, create the pillow by taking the same sized square of fabric, and right sides together, sew along the edge, leaving about a 3 inch opening to allow yourself room to flip it inside out, and to fill your pillow... before filling my pillow, I added some "vines" using twined also outlined my stem with the twine.  I simply hot glued it on to the shape I wanted:
 Now it's time to stuff and close your pillow!  As I mentioned before, I ran out of actual polly fill, so I used left over tulle instead.  Close your pillow with a simple hand stitch.
 And enjoy!
 Have fun experimenting, with the layered pumpkins!  I decided that the shape was simple enough to try and draw up some of my own patterns for a tiny "pumpkin patch" pillow... For these stems I hand stitched them with embroidery floss before sewing on the back of the pillow form.  I also added some extra detailed stitching, and just had fun with it!  I'd love to see your creations if you end up making some of these pillows for yourself!  You can find me over on Instagram, @cherieamourblog and tag me in your photos!

Pattern from Shabby Art Boutique

Thanks so much for stopping by!



Friday, August 18, 2017

DIY Painted Pumpkins

 I've had a crush on those pretty blue-green heirloom pumpkins for some time now.  After finishing my lanterns hand crafted by Natalie from Crafts 2 You,  I knew I needed some of those perfectly colored pumpkins to display in them!  Nothing will ever beat the real deal live pumpkins.  Nothing.  haha!  But I think I found a pretty close second!  Let me share how you too can create these easy painted heirloom pumpkins...
 I first found pumpkins that stacked nicely, and that fit my lanterns.  I didn't care about the color (obviously) haha!  Just the shape and size.
 I found these pumpkin picks at Hobby Lobby.  They were perfect for my project!  It was simple to remove the stems and picks.  They just pulled right out.  I then used a wire cutter to cut off the picks.
 Now for the trial and error part:  Paint!  I just used some acrylic paint that you can find in any craft store.  Lucky for you, I did all the testing for you!  The green heirloom pumpkin definitely
 took me a few tries.  But I think I got it pretty close to the real thing.  From top to bottom of my stacked pumpkins, here are the colors I used:
 "Warm White" Americana acrylic paint. 
For the second pumpkin, I wanted it more of a blueish gray, to contrast with the heirloom pumpkin.  I first mixed equal parts of the "Sea Foam" and the "Drizzle Grey" and covered the whole pumpkin  with that.  It was still a bit too blue for me, so I lightly went over it with the "Dove Grey" on top, making sure to let the blue still peak through in some spots.

 Now for the heirloom pumpkin... I mixed together "Sea Glass" and "Mudstone" together... first adding the "Sea Glass" and slowly adding in the "Mudstone" till I got the shade I wanted it.  I would say about 3 parts of the sea glass to two parts mudstone.
 After that dried, I thought it still needed a little more dimension.  So I took the paint colors I mixed from pumpkin #2 (Sea foam and drizzle grey)  and added a bit of "Barn Wood" to darken it up a bit.  I watered it down also, and painted it into the creases of the pumpkin, wiping it down some with a paper towel to take away any brush strokes.
 And that's it!  Here is a close up of them, so you can see the details.  When you're finished, you can just pop the stems back on, or hot glue them on.  If you have some real pumpkin stems hanging around, that would be even better!  I left my stems off two of the pumpkins so I could stack them.  I will list all the colors for you at the end of this post, so you can easily make your own list of what you'll need.  I hope this tutorial was helpful!  I appreciate you stopping by!

I haven't officially started decorating for fall yet, but of course I had to style these real quick to show you the final product:  ;)


List of paint used:
Americana Acrylic Paints: Warm White, Dove Grey, Sea Glass
Delta Ceramcoat Paints: Drizzle Grey, Sea Foam, Mudstone
Folk Art acrylic paint: Barn Wood