Blessed Thanksgiving

Crepe Paper Flowers For The Fall Season
By Jane A Morris

The summer is fading fast and our flowers are too. But it doesn’t have to be that way, we can make our own pretty paper flowers so that it looks like our flower gardens are still in full bloom.

You can make fall crepe paper flowers for your home decor and it will look like flowers are still blooming everywhere. There are several fall flowers that you can make out of crepe paper. These include mums, asters, fall roses, lilies, anemones, dahlias, hydrangea, and hyacinths for a few choices. And using crepe paper makes them easier to make since it can be stretched and molded to almost any shape.

Making paper flowers is an old craft that is really starting to show up everywhere and if you make your own flowers it will give you a sense of pride in your decorations. There have been designers using them for shows and a lot of brides are starting to use them for their wedding decorations.

You may want to just decorate your home, or maybe you are having a party you could make your own decorations and fall flower centerpieces, or maybe you are getting married how about making your own flowers for your fall wedding.

You can make your beautiful flowers in any color that you prefer, but for the fall season the colors are beautiful reds, oranges, yellows, browns, and greens. These make very pretty colors when made and blended together. A bouquet using the reds, oranges, and yellows for the flowers and having different shades of greens and browns for the foliage will make a unique fall paper flower arrangement.

With Halloween just around the corner you could start making paper flowers to decorate for a Halloween party or just to decorate your home using black, orange, or gold flowers. Make a scene where you have a casket and put your black and gold colored flowers all around as in a mortuary you might even have a dummy as the dead body this will make a great accent for any party or just for the neighborhood kids.

Or how about making a paper flower costume for a Halloween costume. There are different ways to use paper flowers for Halloween if you use your imagination and crafting abilities.

How about making a fall centerpiece for the dining table you will need:

Round or oval shaped tray (size you want your centerpiece to be)

Hurricane lamp style candle holder

Crepe paper flowers and leaf garland (you may need a book with patterns and instructions if you do not have one)

Small gourds (artificial or real)

1. Place your tray on a level surface and put your candle holder in the center of it. Adding a fall colored candle in it.

2. Make your fall paper flowers and leaves with short stems to intertwine them if desired. You will need approximately 6 - 12 flowers. Add them to your tray placing them in intervals around the candle holder.

3. Place your gourds in between the flowers using different colors of them.

4. Make a paper leaf garland to fill in around the flowers and gourds. All you need for this is craft wire, brown floral tape, and brown, gold, and green crepe paper. Take a length of wire 18″ - 24″ long and wrap with the floral tape. Add the leaves that you have made out of crepe paper to the wire at about 2″ intervals then re-wrap the wire so the leaves look as if they belong to a vine.

5. You may even want to make a few larger leaves to distribute around the outside of the tray

This will make a very festive fall centerpiece for your home decor.

I know that you can come up with a lot more fun ideas for this fall season so go to it.

Jane Morris
For the most and best descriptive book on How to Make Paper flowers since the 1920’s go to: http://www.ourpaperflowers.com

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Household Projects For Kids in Every Season - Fall
By Tori Spade

If your kids are always looking for some type of hands on entertainment, there are plenty of little projects you can provide them with to both keep them busy and to create some seasonal decorations for the home. If you have young children, using their creations as décor for the home is a great way to allow them to feel included and important in the home. Fall is usually an exciting and busy time for kids since school is starting back up, but if you’re looking for a way to keep them busy on the weekends - you can supervise these project ideas on any Saturday or Sunday afternoon.

Fall is all about warm browns, oranges, and yellows. Using these colors will help keep all the projects tied together with the fall theme. One cute and fun project that younger children will enjoy is creating a construction paper “wreath” using their hand prints. By purchasing fall colored construction paper, either Styrofoam or cardboard rings (about 6-12 inches in width across), and glue - your kids will have all the supplies they need to create a fun “wreath” for the home. By having them trace their hand repeatedly on different colored paper, cutting out the prints and gluing them overlapping one another onto their ring, they can create a piece for their bedroom doors or even the front door of your home. This project is simple and great for younger kids who are just getting familiar with using scissors.

If you have older children who are interested in exploring the backyard, giving them both a craft project and a learning experience in one is a great idea. By providing them with either fall colored construction paper or felt, a shoebox, and some fall themed stickers or foam cut-outs, they can create their very own “fall treasure box”. By covering the box with the construction paper or felt and then decorating it to their liking with the stickers and/or cut-outs, they’ll be able to personalize their box before they start collecting things. After their box is complete, you can encourage them to venture out into the yard and collect different fall themed items (turning color leaves, acorns, pinecones, etc…) and then report back to you on their findings. By giving kids a project like this, it gives them to opportunity to express themselves creatively, as well as learn about the world around them.

Having supplies to create projects like these around the house is always a great idea. If plans for an outdoor day are suddenly ruined by bad weather, you’ll be able to keep kids entertaining for the afternoon. If you have a babysitter coming by, leaving something like this out for the kids to do will help to keep them occupied while you’re out of the house. If kids have anxiety about their parents leaving, this will help to distract them from that fact.

By giving kids different projects that focus on the season at hand, it will help get everyone in a more “festive” mood. Fall is a great time to get kids focused, and setting up projects like these can certainly help with that process. Obviously, parents can put their own spin on things and if you’d like to make any project more interesting for older kids, adding elements like paint can help make these simple projects more fun and challenging. Regardless, getting your kids interested in expressing their creativity is something that will benefit them now and in the long run. By encouraging them to do hands-on projects at home at a young age, you’ll be setting them up to be creative thinkers down the line.

Tori works for Your Home Supply (YHS) the definitive website for home improvement tools, and gardening supplies. Your Home Supply offers a wide range of cabinet pulls and household tools.

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