The Cross Wall

I have a few projects I'm working on and can't wait to share them with you, but in the meantime I thought I'd show you my cross wall! I did this back in the spring and just love how it turned out! It was fairly easy too. It all started with the center cross I got from a Southern Living party (now Willow House). It matches a few pieces in my entryway and dining room so I thought it was perfect! And I've always liked cross decorations in people's homes I've seen. I actually thought I had come up with this idea all by myself, but then I remembered my sister-in-law has a cross wall in her house too!! So I must have had that in the back of my mind. Hers is really neat...all the crosses are made of the same material and are the same color, but different sizes. She said they came in a kit. Wish I could find me one of those! But this way was not much more difficult. Hobby Lobby has a whole aisle of crosses!! So after perusing that section on several trips I had a nice little collection. Oh and of course I got them during their 50% off sales! I had my Southern Living cross on the wall by itself for a long time and then I picked up these two crosses and added from there!



Not a great picture, but you get the idea. And it helps you see that this is a small wall and it fits nicely here. I started with a green and red cross (I picked up the colors in the original cross). And then I picked out other smaller ones that I liked and that were different to give it some contrast. Once I had them all I was ready to hang them up! But it was a little tricky so I laid them out on the floor to get an idea of where I wanted each one to go. I had it perfectly arranged, but was a little confused on how I was going to keep them perfectly arranged from the floor to the wall. And then my smarty pants husband suggested I take a picture! Genius! So that really helped...I referred to my camera as I was hanging them up:-)

Fall Mantle and Banner Tutorial!

Remember these bad boys from my last post? Well here they are in action!!



And Tah-Dah here is my fall mantle!! Whatcha think? The following mantle (from pinterest of course) was my inspiration:



I saw it and loved pretty much everything about it. So I did mine very similar adding a few twists of my own:-)

Here's the low-down on everything:



The pumpkins on the ends and the leaves garland were on sale at Hobby Lobby.



The wire pumpkin is from Garden Ridge and was around $7. I had the red candle holder and candle on hand.



The candle holders acting as pumpkin stands are from Michaels (around $7 each, but used 40% off coupon). You may already have some you can use! I had the wire baskets and candles on hand.

Oh and just for kicks, here is my husband's version of our fall mantle:



Yes, folks you do see a hamburger piggy bank on display!?!! He saw this at Target and had to have it. I asked where he was going to put it and apparently it lead him to this idea. He wanted to see if I would notice...and yes I did!!! Lol.

Fall Banner Tutorial



Do you like my Fall Banner? If so, here's a tutorial so you can make your own!



First, I gathered the above pictured supplies; 1 yard burlap (about $2/yard), 2 felt squares (on hand, but available at any craft store), ruler, and scissors.

This was my first time working with burlap and I learned a few things. First, it is hard to cut! I tried cutting some triangles for the flags freestyle, but it wasn't going very well. So I grabbed some supplies I had laying around the house; 8.5" x 11" printer paper and a pencil. I wanted to fashion a flag template so I measured and drew a line at half of the 8.5" side (4.25"). Then I simply connected the corners and my center point to make a nice, straight triangle. I cut it out and had my flag template! It was the perfect size and so easy!

Next, I grabbed a black sharpie (any black marker will do) and traced my triangle on to the burlap. I flipped it every other one so I wouldn't waste any burlap.



Then I cute them out (very slowly) and had my 4 little triangle flags (to spell FALL).



After that, I grabbed my sharpie again and wrote the letters on the flags freehand. I also grabbed a flat-tipped paint brush and some black acrylic paint.



The scallops:

Next, I made some scallops for the tops of the flags. I had some felt on hand that were similar colors and fall-ish so I thought it would be a cute touch. And I'm loving scallops lately! The first thing I did was lay my felt on top of one of the flags and make a little mark with my sharpie as pictured:



Then I drew some scallops! I did them freehand by eyeballing the section into 3 parts and making marks and then drew the scallops connecting the dots. If you don't feel comfortable doing that, you can find something in your home to trace (like half of the bottom of a can).



Next, I cut the scallop out and used it to trace the next one! I did two of each color.



Here are my 4 little felt scallops!



Painting time!

All I did was paint right over the letters I drew. The type of paint brush I used made it particularly easy. See how it is very flat at the tip in the picture below? It made for straight lines on my letters.



Here's a shot of all my painting supplies...notice the white paper under the burlap? Yes, paint will go through burlap so protect your surfaces!



I laid it out to get an idea of how it was looking:



It looked good, but it felt like something was missing. I didn't like the plain black letters. It needed some sprucing up! So I grabbed some brown acrylic paint and using the tip of my brush I outlined the letters in brown. I turned the flags sideways to make this a little easier. I also painted over the black (with just a little paint on my brush) to give it a brown tint. I loved it! It just gave it a little something extra and softened it up a bit:-)



Gluing time!

Next, I grabbed my hot glue gun and glued on those scallops! I placed a paper towel under the flag because glue will go through burlap too!!



Originally I was going to connect the flags with felt, but later realized ribbon would be a whole lot easier. So I grabbed some ribbon I had on hand. I turned the flags over so I could glue the ribbon to the back (make sure your letters are in the right order!!). I made sure all my surfaces were covered and got to gluing! I started in the middle and did a little bit at a time.



Here it is with the ribbon! I actually like how it looks plain. Maybe I'll use it some time flipped over like this!



I hung it up and it looked nice, but it was kind of plain. It needed some color! When I looked back at the banner in the picture from pinterest I realized they had leaves between the letters and thought that may do the trick! So I picked up a bag of leaves at Michael's for a buck:



I began by cutting a line (starting at the bottom of the leaf) to the middle of the leaf and then cutting a hole in the center of the leaf.

I stuck them on my banner, grouping different sizes and colored leaves. They stayed on pretty good. Not sure this is the best method, but it did the trick!

I was loving it!! Oh and just so you can be annoyed too...I had the saying "It's fall y'all!" in my head throughout the banner making process - ahhh!!!:-/