Gobbler Gourds {Simple Napkin Rings Part 2}

Ahhh, Autumn. Fall yard work unexpectedly leads to creative inspiration. I can hardly wait to show you!! 


First: wanna take a short trip down the winding backroads of creativity and see how it all evolved?

C'mon! Climb in...we're going to a beautiful plant farm, home of this purty little rig.  

The plantings are gorgeous this fall.  

Here's some great junk. You can see much more on the Picking Out Fall Gourds tour *here.* I give you some tips on choosing gourds. 

For now, as you may know I fell in love with an assortment of gourds and brought them home... 


...and made simple ornaments...

...for a halloween project that didn't quite turn out. You can see the mayhem on facebook. For today's purpose, please note the green balls at the base of the tree. 

Those are hedge apples. They fall like rain {actually more like giant green hail} from the hedge trees in our yard. So when I ran into Babs, who bought and celebrated hedge apples on her blog, I was stunned! And I realized: sometimes when you have something in abundance, you take it for granted. 

So I thought: what else am I not really seeing and fully appreciating? These locust tree pods are everywhere in our yard. That's when inspiration struck. {Stay with me...the road is winding back around.} 

I wanted to use the locust pods and plant farm gourds to take things up a notch. You might have seen my post on napkin rings that do double duty as place cards. But they are actually now serving as a base for these Thanksgiving table decorations / place cards: 

Aren't they SWEET? She sports gold paint stripes, a head from a {fake} acorn, and feet of leaves.

Both get google eyes and wattles from a fall fake flower bush. His feet are flowers.

To make the tails, I poked holes into the gourds and stuck in the pods.

The turkeys from the plant farm do a double-take...

See more pics of these two on Facebook.

So. Much. Fun.  


Want to see something a little more refined for the adult Thanksgiving table? I thought so! *Click here* for Natural & Fancy Place Cards.

May you find inspiration in your fall chores! And thank you, Babs, for reminding me that abundance and opportunity are all around us. There's so much to be grateful for...

 Snarky Pilgrim Apron Here
Thanksgiving Napkins Here

Simple Napkin Rings - Place Cards Here

Funny Thanksgiving Card Here

Hilarious Silverware Turkey Here


Grab some virtual candy here

to bling up your blog or website!

I'm linking up to these superb parties: Monday:  Craftomaniac, Making The World Cuter, Marvelously Messy, Project Queen, The Girl Creative, Debbiedoo's Newbie Party, The Gunny Sack; Tuesday:  Tip Junkie, Today's Creative Blog; Wednesday:  Blue Cricket Design, Nest of Posies, Savvy Southern Style, The Trendy Treehouse, Very Merry Vintage Style; Thursday:  Katie's Nesting Spot, Shabby Nest, The CSI Project; Friday:  Finding Fabulous, My Simple Home Life, Romantic Home, Tatertots and Jello, Thirty Handmade Days, Whipperberry; Saturday:  Be Different Act Normal, Funky Junk Interiors, French Country Cottage, I Can't Stop Crafting; Sunday: Nifty Thrifty Things, Under The Table and Dreaming; Thanksgiving 2011: Someday Crafts Seasonal: It's Fall Y'all!



Party with The Wildly Original Crowd!
link up Wednesdays at 7pm CST.

Simple Napkin Rings

Simple and organic materials of raffia and cardboard create pleasing napkin rings or place cards... AND in the coming days it will serve as the sturdy base of a splendid little project I will be unveiling.

This project couldn't be thriftier or easier. Just cut the cardboard tube from your paper towels, wrapping paper, or what-have-you, down to the width you want for the place cards / napkin rings. Put a little hot glue on the tube and wrap raffia around it. You could tie it off in a bow or knot as in this photo, or hot glue into place a little cardboard leaf that can pull double duty as a place card. Options are endless!

I cut my tubes wide enough to accommodate the leaf punch/embosser I used for the place cards. 

But what I'm really going to use these for started with a field trip my hubby and I took a couple of weeks ago.

I bought some pretty little gourds.

The next weekend, when we worked in the yard, I started looking at the 'fall debris' in a whole new way.

You may have seen some of the results of that in this post.

These are seed pods from the locust tree.  Deer love to eat these. Once we had a deer munching on some no more than 8 or 10 feet away from us as we sat on the back patio. What a treat! {for all of us} 

Tons of them land in our yard each fall. See? There are still plenty waiting to fall. 

And all the threads of this little story will fall into place here with Part 2 of this story!


Here's a MUST-see the December holiday version. Click HERE. 

{Hint..You have a secret ingredient in your kitchen right now to make the holiday version even more amazing}

A yummy Fall treat:

Peach Crisp baked in Mason Jars

Kiss the Cook!
3 free printables

{I host a linky party every Wednesday. More info *HERE.*  I'm sharing Simple Fall Napkin Rings with these fine folks, whose links open on ~ Sunday:  Sew Darned Crafty, I Should Be Mopping The Floor, Making Monday Marvelous, Brassy Apple, Craftomaniac, Alderberry Hill, Under the Table & Dreaming, Making the World Cuter ; Monday: Skip to my Lou, Cherished Bliss, The Rustic Pig, Sugar Bee Crafts ; Tuesday: Not Just a Housewife, Carolyn's Homework, Elizabeth & Co., The DIY Dreamer, Tip Junkie's Tip Me Tuesday, Savvy Southern Style, What we Wore & Made, Uncommon, Gingersnap Crafts, The NY Melrose Family, Today's Creative Blog ; Wednesday: I Gotta Create! ,  All Star Block Party, The 36th Avenue, Live-Laugh-Rowe, Handy Man Crafty Woman, The Trendy Treehouse ; Thursday: Scissors & Spatulas, My Repurposed Life, Frugal Girls, Shabby Nest,  Romantic Home, French County Cottage, Stuff & Nonsense ; Friday: Funky Junk Interiors, Happy Hour, Anything Goes, Finding Fabulous, My Simple Home Life, Tatertots & Jello, Thirty Handmade Days, One Creative Mommy ; Saturday: Be Different Act Normal, A Bouquet of Talent, Tutus & Tea Parties, Six Sisters Stuff, Sew Country Chick, DIY Showoff, Positively Splendid , Nifty Thrifty Things; Seasonal: Better Late Than Never}

Join The Wildly Original Crowd 
linky party Wednesdays at 7pm CST!

Abundant Creativity: Stars of Thanksgiving Week 2

   Using an everyday object in an unexpected way is a hallmark of creativity that brings delight. Here's another "3-course meal" of artists who do just that:

   Melissa over at Shabby Love created this inspiration board out of an old crib mattress spring when she turned a guest room into what every woman needs: a {craft} Room Of Her Own. Such an out-of-the-box approach is sure to inspire fantastic projects. 

   Jaime over at Everyday Art whipped up a brainy and beautiful set of coasters from Scrabble tiles.  I'll bet she received a high score for this gift-giving idea. 

D from The Shady Porch cooked up this Turkey Menu Chalkboard from an old pizza board and scrap wood. What really cracks me up is that turkey's snood {use that word in Scrabble} is made from a balloon! I love how the whole project uses recycled objects.

Artists, you are creative SuperStars! Feel free to grab my feature button {code at the bottom of the blog}. Friends, go take a closer look at these artist's blogs.

Check out the many more amazing projects right here and keep linking up! The party continues. We have time for one more mini highlight Nov. 17th before the big parade on Nov. 23rd. Be sure to share the linky button and spread the word. All gawkers and linkers are welcome! 


You might also be interested in these Thanksgiving projects:
Thanksgiving Napkins & Linky Party
Abundant Beauty: Stars for Week 1
Funny Thanksgiving Card
A Real Gobbler: Silverware Turkey

Pass the Denture Cream!

     Ok, its a vegetarian Thanksgiving joke. 

If you haven't experienced tofurky, just recall that thanksgiving when the turkey turned out dry and rubbery. Now you understand. But my sister likes it, so I had to tease her with this card. Let's see how it's made:
     I used the Ladies With Purses stamp from River City Rubber Works. Love that place's humor!  

Gertrude

Mildred

To make these funny old birds...

Abundant Beauty: Stars of Thanksgiving Week 1

Good Gravy, what a talented array of artists we have so far at the Abundant Thanks linky party! 

Kathy over at Katalina Jewelry takes a walk on the wild side, transforming shoes into jewelry!  How creative is that? And a GORGEOUS reference to fall, to boot! You really must go see the whole collection and how she does it. It'll knock your socks off {and then your shoes, which you'll soon be wearing on your ears}!

I said I would share one project each week, but let's take just one more bite. Shall we? Stephanie over at All Artful painted this deliciously colorful pillow. Don't you just love the dimensional flower embellishment? It evokes gratitude for nature, color, songbirds, and soft places to snuggle.

Ok...I cannot stop myself. Just one more. {does this sound familiar at Thanksgiving?} Then I gotta save some of you fabulous artists for later. This homey goodness from Cindi over at Rustique Art begs you to chair up to the table. And hey, she channeled Paul Bunyan to make those log candle holders. {maybe she said it differently!}

Continue to come link up at the "Abundant Thanks" party!  

We're cookin' up a whole mess of gratitude with some weekly 'taste tests' of your art. Then, we're going to rival Macy's with our own giant Thanksgiving Parade of selected works starting on November 23rd. It's the Thanksgiving season, and this is calorie-free fun! How often can you say that?!

Thank you Kathy, Stephanie and Cindi for sharing your artistry. You are Stars in our eyes!  Feel free to grab the feature button {code is at the bottom of the blog site}.  The rest of you artists, hold on to your giblets. We're not done yet!


Keep Creating,
Christina

Gorgeous Glass, Burlap and..Weeds?

MMmm...yummy! Capturing light on the curves of glass through a camera lens is about as good as swigging a frothy latte. Get ready to drink in some color, texture and the wonders of nature.

The bounty of nature is stunning. She is gorgeous to me even in the form that some call 'weeds.'