Welcome October!
And I suppose you know I love this season. We have a whole section of this website dedicated to Autumn (and Halloween).
No surprise, then, if I tell you that I fell in love at first sight with the initiative created by my friend Simona, the blog coach behind La Creative Room: the Blogtober! The original post is in Italian, so I’ll sum up here what that is about.
She proposed 31 topics for each one of the 31 days of October, to inspire other bloggers and foster a sense of blogging community. No matter the topic of your blog, no matter if you feel like every topic suits you: no constraints, no limits. Choose the topics you like, in the order you like: the main goal is to be inspired and have a different way to discover other blogs and bloggers.
So here I am participating in this 2023 Blogtober: an occasion to talk again of our Autumn crafts. Let’s start with topic n. 9 “The Autumn decorations I love most“. And yes, this could also refer to topic n.23 “DIY ideas to decorate in Autumn”.
Let’s dive right in! I want to showcase our DIY Autumn crafts, that by the way we are just taking out of their boxes to stay around for all the season!
String art maple leaf
This project has a funny story. Back in 2016, one November day (yes, it was Autumn!) we went out to buy a screwdriver. Out of the store, we were heading home when we noticed something: next to a bin there was an old wooden chair, its backrest broken. The seat, though, was in good conditions: a lovely piece of wood in three boards.
That was our string art period: we had made a few project and were planning to make others. The only problem was finding suitable materials, wooden boards in particular. That one was perfect. How could we take it home with us on public transport, though?
I looked at Locutus, then moved my eyes to his hand: he had a screwdriver. So we used it to remove the seat from the rest of the chair. That wood came home with us and was the base of our first bi-colored string art project, a maple leaf in Autumn colors that now is hanged in my parents’ home.
We didn’t paint the wood, just sanded a bit and it was perfect, color, imperfections and all. We also left the original screw marks, to remind us of this funny episode of our crafting lives.
Cement pumpkins
The first Autumn project we made to decorate our new home were our cement pumpkins. Working with cement is super fun! And it’s not hard, at all!
The hardest part is the painting, that’s a Locutus thing here in the family. He loves taking the right time give each pumpkin the most realistic appearance he can achieve.
It’s also a good way to reuse garbage, since you need to stuff the pumpkin with lightweight material. You don’t want a decoration you are not even able to lift, do you? Also, you need an old towel and old tights, so those are items you want to keep around if you want to make such a project. Woman’s tights could be annoying sometimes, when they break in the worst situations. Knowing they can change function and remain useful in my case mitigates the irritation!
If you want to make your own pumpkins, we prepared an easy tutorial, with also a brief summary video.
Pumpkin plushes
The pumpkin plushes are a dear project to me, the very first item I sewed with the sewing machine my husband gifted me for my birthday a few years back.
I was so happy with them that I also designed their sewing pattern, my very first one!
They are quick and easy to make. For me, the hardest part was crocheting the vine: if you know my crafting preferences a little, you know I feel more at ease with my lucet!
So, if you like those cute pumpkins, you can make them yourself following my tutorial and pattern, or you could ask me to make them for you! Did you know we have a Ko-fi page with a tiny shop for projects or commissions?
Mushroom plushes
Mushroom plushes have been a request of my husband for a while. I simply couldn’t find the right way to make them. I tried different patterns, but no one suited me.
Then I found the right tips thanks to Tatyana Maksimenko on Pinterest and was sent the right way to make me the most suitable pattern. I then wrote a tutorial to explain the end of my toadstool journey to other crafters.
I made several mushrooms, most of them with an embroidered cap. I gifted one to our aunt and she found the perfect spot to keep it, in a little cup in a flower pot. So cute!
Now we are planning a proper environment to display our own mushrooms, a sort of mini Autumn diorama… keep an eye here on the blog to know more soon!
What next?
Do you think this is the end of our Autumn projects?
Obviously it’s not! We are planning more seasonal crafts, also for other seasons. I hope for the next Blogtober we have more to tell you and new projects to showcase.
In the meantime, go find Simona’s Blogtober initiative and enjoy content from the bloggers community!
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