Tuesday, October 14, 2025

Gold Glitter Leaves Table Runner

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Fall is here and it's truly the season of celebrations! And with that it's time to give your home a stylish autumn update - especially for all the activities involved in celebrating this time of the year! Imagine creating a dazzling tablescape to decorate your dining area starting with a shimmering table runner featuring a scattering of sparkling gold glitter leaves! I know I could use regular fall color leaves but where's the fun in that - although I cannot deny the stunning beauty of the colorful hues of foliage that occurs during Fall! Gold - especially gold glitter pairs well with traditional fall colors as well as neutrals and white - thus creating a glittering and glimmering effect to your fall decor!

Hello and Welcome to this month's Creative Craft Hop co-hosted by Donna @Modern on  Monticello and Sara @Birdz of a Feather  who take turns every other month! The lovely and talented Donna is our host for this month!


If you're coming over from Cecilia @My Thrift Store Addiction wasn't her Chunky Crocheted Throw gorgeous!               

So let's get started with how I made this lovely Gold Glitter Leaves Table Runner!

You Will Need:

Disclosure I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites, this post may contain links. I may receive a very small commission at no cost to you! Plus Google Adsense provides a platform for me to monetize my content by hosting ads from Google's network of advertisers. The money I earn helps pay my crafting expenses. Thanks so much for your support!

How To Make:

I'm sharing a way to transform your dining table with a stunning handmade table runner featuring DIY gold glitter leaves! First, I'm cutting the runner from a roll of gold metallic mesh material. 


Begin by rolling out the length of your table runner desired. 

I wanted the runner to overlap the ends of my dinning room table and hang down a bit - so I just laid the roll on the table, marking off the length needed and cutting off the excess. 
Once I had the mesh runner cut out, it was time to get the leaves glittered! I had a garland of fall leaves in my stash! 

All I had to do was cut each leaf off the plastic vine to apply Mod Podge. I placed the leaves on parchment paper to .  .  .


sprinkle on the glitter.
How cool do these leaves look!!!

I guess you're wondering why I didn't use spray-on glitter to cover the leaves. I tried, but that was a complete disaster for me. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures. But to make a long story short, on a nice sunny day, I placed an open plastic bag on my backyard grass and secured the bag with thin bamboo skewers. I laid the full garland down on the plastic and secured all the leaves with more bamboo skewers.  Then I started spraying the leaves with Krylon Glitter Blast. That's when I realized I couldn't control the direction of the spray and the paint went everywhere. When I tried stopping the paint, it continued to spray! What a mess! There was more paint on the plastic bag and my gloved hands than on the leaves! And then the can was empty with very few leaves covered. I was so disgusted! Plus, I didn't care for the color of the glitter. It was too dull. So I picked everything up and threw it all in the trash! Later, I went on Amazon and read some of the reviews for the paint. Some stated that the spray mechanism has significant issues, with customers reporting that it goes everywhere and doesn't spray evenly. Moreover, the product clogs easily and stops working after a few uses. I wish I had read that first before buying a can at Michaels!


I continue the process of applying Mod Podge and glitter and letting the leaves dry. Then I would shake the loose glitter off onto the parchment paper and return it to the glitter bottle.

After the leaves were dry, applied another coat of Mod Podge to seal.

Once all the leaves were dry, I cut off the stems from the bottom center of the leaves and applied glue to the back .  .  .

and began gluing the leaves onto the mesh table runner until .  .  .        
the runner was completely covered with sparkling gold glitter leaves!

What a lovely way to transform my dining table for Fall!

Up next is Donna @Modern on  Monticello and one of our awesome hosts sharing her charming Handmade Christmas Card Ornaments! 

And be sure to visit all of our very creative crafters listed below! 

Saturday, September 27, 2025

Stiffened Organza Fabric Vase

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Hello and Welcome to the 'Do It Over' Designers Blog Hop!!  In case you haven't heard, the "Do It Over Designers" is a group of creative bloggers who love to recycle/upcycle/ DIY, hosted by Anne @The Apple Street Cottage. It happens the 4th Saturday of every other month and it's all about taking something old and/or unused and 'doing it over' into something new.


One of my favorite past times is looking online at high-end stores for DIY craft  inspirations! High-end stores often showcase craftable ideas that can be duplicated or imitated at a much, much lower cost.  Many expensive items and or ideas can often use thrifted, recyclable, or lower cost items transformed with affordable materials. I especially love vases made from unexpected recyclable items. I've made a few throughout my crafting years!

I fell in love with the vase pictured below found at Neiman Marcus! Especially the colors and flowers! It's crystal and made by the Jean Daum dynasty, selling for over thirty one thousand dollars! It's pretty spectacular in height, too, standing at an amazing 30" tall with a 29" diameter! It is one of many on the site created by the Daum dynasty. I love this one because, you know, it has purple hues in it!!!!!
When I look at this vase as a crafter, I imagine a smaller version and re-creation or "Do Over" of one using inexpensive stiffened organza fabric in the shape of a vase with flowers surrounding the top and body. Why use organza, you ask?  A dear, dear friend of mine was once a costume designer and seamstress many years ago for a local playhouse. She knew I loved purple so when she came across a small piece of purple organza fabric leftover from a costume, she gave it to me. It was really beautiful and I had no idea what I would do with it at the time but I kept it in my stash - and still cherish it very much to this day since she is no longer with us! 

So this is what I came up with using the organza fabric. To create a DIY stiffened organza fabric vase. For this, you'll need fabric stiffener and an old vase (plastic container) or other recyclable objects (paper mache cone tree) to use as a stand. The process involves saturating the organza with a stiffening solution, draping it over the stand, while shaping it and then letting it dry completely to hold its shape. Resulting in a soft, flowing look of fabric in a translucent dimensional vase that holds its shape. 

Materials:
Disclosure I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites, this post may contain links. I may receive a very small commission at no cost to you! Plus Google Adsense provides a platform for me to monetize my content by hosting ads from Google's network of advertisers. The money I earn helps pay my crafting expenses. Thanks so much for your support!


How To:
First, cover work surface table with an open plastic trash bag. Then place the plastic container over the paper mache cone tree to make the stand a bit taller and for the fabric to hang in folds and off the table. 























 











Next, wrap the stand completely in plastic wrap. This will prevent the fabric from sticking to the stand and make it easy to remove once it's dry.

Before I go any further, I must say that I tried a couple of different ways to stiffen the organza. First, I used Aleene's Fabric Stiffener & Draping Liquid. The product got good reviews and I love other Aleene products! I followed the directions but the fabric didn't dry clear. I could see product stains. I washed what I could out and then tried painting the stiffener on with a brush and that didn't work either. The fabric did not dry clear. I also tried Mod Podge and that wasn't stiff enough and also left stains.

  
Luckily, I found a half used bottle of Beacon Stiffen Stuff Fabric Stiffening Spray in my stash and tried that. And thank goodness, it worked after spraying on several coats and letting it dry between coats.

So I draped the stand with the organza fabric and saturated the fabric using the Beacon spray-on stiffening solution until it was completely saturated. 


Then I arranged the fabric into soft drapes, and folds and let dry. 

I had to spray it several times and let dry each time to get the fabric stiff enough to hold a vase shape.


While the fabric was drying from being sprayed with fabric stiffener, I found a flower image in two different sizes that I've used before to cut out for embellishing the vase. I folded the organza several times and then pinned the images on the fabric and .  .  .


cut out each one.

Next, I separated the organza flower designs and placed them on sheets of parchment paper to spray on fabric stiffener and let dry overnight.


I like that this flower design is similar to the small ones on the fabric.

Once the flower embellishments were dry I tried arranging one group together into a flower to see how it would work glued on the vase.

So far, so good!

Now to arrange more flower embellishments together!
Here's a sample of them:


   After gluing on the organza flowers around the fabric vase I ended up with this:  

I might have gotten carried away with adding flowers.

Personally, I should have stopped with the fabric vase pictured below:

There are flowers already on the fabric and I like the lines of this one better. 
What do you think? 


Before you leave, don't forget this is a blog hop and the team has some amazing upcycle/recycle/do-it-over projects to share with you.

Be sure to visit all of this month's creative projects by the 
 "Do It Over Designers"  listed below:







Friday, September 19, 2025

How to Make a Rope Pumpkin with Bows

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Have I got a cool way of making an adorable rope pumpkin using the Bowdabra - a bow making tool! This delightful, decorative rope pumpkin is made using sisal rope wrapped around the Bowdabra tower into circles tied together and glued to a stem. And accented with large poofy bows! What a fun and easy way to decorate for Fall, Halloween and Thanksgiving!

I originally published this project on the Bowdabra.com site, where I am on the Design Team!

Materials:

How To:

Insert an 18″ piece of bow wire folded in half into the Bowdabra, tucking ends under. Unroll one end of the rope and begin coiling it around the Bowdabra tower.


Continue coiling the rope on top of each other five times.

Cut the end of the rope with craft scissors and remove from the Bowdabra tower.
Secure the rope circle by tightly tying a piece of bow wire around the rope. Repeat the steps to create four more rope coils.

Place a blob of hot glue against the back of the tied coils and secure to the stem.  

Repeat for all the rope coils to .  .  .
create a pumpkin shape around the stem.
Uncoil about 36" of sisal rope and  .  .  .
wrap one section around the glued rope coils and stem. Secure with hot glue.

To Make the Bow
Insert an 18″ piece of bow wire folded in half into the Bowdabra, tucking ends under.  Take a 10″ strip of ribbon and pinch the ribbon strip in the middle and insert down into the Mini Bowdabra for the bow tails.  Dovetail the ends by folding the ends together and cutting at an angle from the fold down to the opposite end. 
Leaving the ribbon on the roll, pinch one end and place it down into the Bowdabra. Make a 4" loop by folding and twisting the ribbon down into the Bowdabra.
Repeat folding and twisting the ribbon down into the Bowdabra to make a 4" loop on the opposite side.
Continue making two more loops on either side for a total of four, 4" loops.  Make a button loop to cover the bow wire, cutting off the excess ribbon.  

 Scrunch the ribbon down with the Bowdabra wand.
While the bow is still in the Bowdabra, thread the loose ends of the bow wire through the loop and pull tight while gently pulling the bow out. Make a second bow following the same steps for the first bow.
Fluff and attach the bows on opposite sides of the stem using hot glue. 
A classy looking centerpiece to add to your fall decor!


Thanks for stopping by

and take a little time to enjoy,

Happy Crafting!