Autumn Lunch Bag Trees

Mod Podge, yarn pom poms, and trash. Yay! They're little Autumn trees made out of old crumpled lunch sacks.

First, cut off the bottom of the bag, then cut it open so it's a flat rectangle. Next, cut slits where I drew the dotted lines.

Now brush the entire surface with a layer of Mod Podge. I watered it down just a tiny bit.

Now sort of bunch it up in the middle. And separate out those strips at the top where you snipped it. Gently start twisting.

And twisting. Twist the trunk. Twist the branches. Twist the roots.

Keep twisting until it looks like a tree.

Let the Mod Podge dry. You can snip the roots and branches with scissors if you want them a bit shorter.

Plop some yarn pom poms into the trees. Add a dab of Mod Podge on the branches to hold them in place. And then photograph them all over your house.

Electrified Fox Lamp Tutorial

First, you need a stuffed animal. This fox pattern is available here, but you can use any animal you like as long as it's not made of fur, and you don't have to sew your own. I used the fox but modified the tail like this:

so that the light strand could go up the tail, too. I cut a curve into the side and then handstitched the tail on.

Next, I stuffed the fox and left the bottom open.

And now comes the fun part. You get to cover the whole creature with Stiffy! This stuff is so fun, I swear. You basically brush it on thick and let it dry. It turns the fabric into a hard shell. And it doesn't stink! Extra points for that!

Now you get to eviscerate your animal. After the Stiffy is totally dry, gently pull out all the stuffing. I used a pencil wrapped in duct tape to poke up into the far corners and grab the stuffing. Sort of spin the pencil around in there.

Like cotton candy!

Trim the bottom edge off so that the fox stands up straight. And cut a snip out for the light cord.

And stuff the light string inside and up the tail and into the head. Please use LED lightsso you don't burn down your house.

And voila. You can really use any animal for this, and you don't have to sew your own. Just coat it with Stiffy, and then cut an inconspicuous hole in the back to remove the stuffing and insert the lights.

Fish Scale Wall Art

What you’ll need: 5 ft. x 5 ft. pieces of ply wood, scissors, card stock, hot glue gun, 2 cans of gold spray paint, 2 sawtooth picture hangers

1. Cut out your circles. I did this the hard way by tracing a coffee cup and cutting each one out, but this task could be easier if you got the proper tool. I cut out 200. No, it wasn’t my favorite part, go get yourself a circle cutter.

2. Hot glue gun your circles to your board, offsetting each row from each other. The other two tutorials above, attached their circles with push pins and staples. I got the wrong kind of wood for this, so I used my trusty glue gun.

3.  Now that you have all your circles attached, spray them down with your gold paint. Makes sure to get the edges well and direct the paint so it get s underneath the circles a bit.

4. Let the paint dry, it shouldn’t take long.

5. You will find that your circles have dried a little funky, so I went back through with my glue gun and tacked them down so they lay flat. I attached my sawtooth picture hangers, and hung it up.

This project is simple, but does take some time, so be sure to set enough time aside to complete it.