Crafty McCrafterson-in-Training

I've never enjoyed nor been good at crafts/DIY projects.

Period.

Any type of DIY project that I've attempted since I've been an adult has turned into disaster/ends up looking like a preschooler's project -- at best. Therefore, I just haven't done many crafts projects.

However, with the advent of Pinterest, I must say that my interest in craft projects has been rekindled. I even have a "Crafty/DIY" board. (Of course, I've pinned a million things and will probably never get to half of them.)

Anywho, I was thinking about fall decor recently, Googled it, and found this:

photo credit

Someting about the off-white color throughout attacted me to it. (I've never been fond of orange, and since orange is such a big part of fall decor, that may be why I've avoided traditional pumpkin stuff.)

I followed the directions on the website, with a few exceptions. Here's the shopping list:

• an unfinished candestick holder (got mine at Michaels.) The official instructions say to get a candlestick base. I couldn't find one at either Michaels or AC Moore, so I skipped it (and there doesn't seem to be a top-heavy problem.)
• can of spray paint in off-white/cream color. I ended up getting....
• 25 oz hurricane vase (got mine at AC Moore).
• pinecones (if I'd had any in my yard, I would've used those.) I bought a bag of them at Michaels, but could only find cinnamon scented ones. Heavy duty!
• small fake pumpkins (bought a bag of mixed pumpkins, gourds, squash at Michaels)
• fall stems (fake flowers) (I got mine at Michaels)
• Gorilla Glue

First, spray paint the candlestick holder and the pumpkins (I put two in my final product). I put Scotch Tape around the stems of the pumpkins so they'd stay the brownish color they were.

And yes, I'm a little heavy-handed with the spray paint.

My candlestick holder was lined with a small tin insert, which created a small lip on top. I wanted the vase to stay flat on top of it, so I had my loving husband remove the tin insert.

Once that was done, I removed the sticker from the bottom of the vase, cleaned it, and then wiped the bottom with a damp paper towel. I put the Gorilla Glue on the top of the candlestick holder, pressed together, and then put a book on top to seal the deal.

Yes, that's Julia Child's latest biography and yes, I realize that I have two different wall plates inches from each other -- one being completely hideous. Don't hate.

After an hour or so, all was dry and stuck together. I added two or three pinecones and two pumpkins to the vase and then the fall stems. (I cut/bent them to make them "work.)

Here's the finished product.

Not bad, eh? Actually doesn't look like a preschooler's work. I'm pretty happy with it, although now that I look at the picture, the stems are probably too long. I'll work on cutting those tomorrow -- when I make my second one! (One for each side of the mantel.)

So, the moral of the story is this -- it's never too late to start crafting. At age 40 I can barely sew a button on and if I had a glue gun, I'd probably glue my fingers together, but baby steps, people, baby steps!