Supplies:
- Box or block. I purchased these wooden boxes from Dollar Tree. You only need one of the boxes. So, the other one can be used for another project. You will need 4 in total unless you decide to spell something else out.
- Glue. I used wood glue
- Paint. I used this orange and brown acrylic paint
- The letters that spell out FALL in either wood, or vinyl. You can get my exact letters from my shop. I have made a fall themed SVF file for $1. It comes with some pumpkins, a leaf, and the letters FALL. This project is pretty budget friendly. By buying from my shop you also support my website, which allows me to continue to make and show you more projects like this.
- Burlap to make leaves. I used the normal burlap color as well as a maroon color, which I picked up from Dollar Tree
- Wood stem. I cut down a tree branch I found outside, but you could also purchase these. Occasionally I will find them at Dollar Tree. If you decide to cut your own stems, then you will also need something to cut the branch. I used a hand saw since they were a little thick to cut with my pliers.
- Flower to finish it off. I chose these sunflowers I found from Dollar Tree.
I used these wood boxes from Dollar Tree. So, I started out by taking the smaller/inside box out. You could use the outer box, but I have plans for another project for those. You may want to sand these down just a little to smooth out any rough edges. You could use any box or block you have for this project. You will need four in total unless you decide to spell something else out. Once you have your square boxes or blocks it is time to paint them. I just painted mine a solid orange color, but you could make them other colors if you wished. I did add a little of my brown paint to my orange to darken it up a little. I also thought about going back and dry brushing a dark brown around the edges to give it a more rustic look, but decided against it. You only need to paint the top, front, and two sides of the box, but I still painted all the sides. It just seemed odd to leave one side unpainted. By painting all the sides, you have a little more choice on whish sides you want showing and which side is in the back or at the bottom. If you picked the inside box like I did, then you can have the cut out either in the back or at the bottom.
Once your paint is dry it is time to decorate. You can go to my shop and buy my fall SVG file kit to get the exact letters I used. There is also a leaf in there that I almost used in place of my A, but finally decided to keep the A. I cut these files out of wood, but you could also cut them out of vinyl as well. The nice part about this project is that you have several options to change it up and make it fit your taste or décor. I painted my letters brown, then glued them on with wood glue. Other glues will work just as well.
For the leaves I purchased these maroon burlap leaves from Dollar Tree. I liked the pop of color it added. The leaves themselves were too big for my little pumpkins. So, I decided to cut smaller leaves out of the bigger leaf. Once I got one leaf cut out, I used a sharpie marker to trace around my cut out to make the other leaves. Just be careful as some of the sharpie lines may show. You could use the back side of the burlap to draw your cut lines. One maroon leaf looked a bit off, so I decided to also make a burlap colored leaf to go underneath it. Again, I used the maroon leaf to trace a bigger leaf shape onto my role of burlap. This burlap was a looser weave than my maroon burlap and thus the edges unraveled a little. My cutting of this burlap was a little sloppy, plus with the edges unraveling, my leaves came out a little odd. Since these leaves are going on the bottom, it was okay. Not all leaves look identical anyway. I would recommend using a tighter woven burlap if you and going to cut them like I did. The maroon was a tighter weave, and thus I did not have any issues with cutting it or it unraveling once cut.
Since I already had the wood glue, I decided to use that to glue my leaves and things to the top of my pumpkin. This glue worked surprisingly well. I just dabbed sections of my first burlap leaf into the glue. The glue will show through the burlap, but once the glue is dry it will not show. I then did the same thing with the smaller maroon leaf. Next, I took my pieces of a small tree branch and glued them down on top of the leaves as my stems. These branch pieces were taken from a branch I found lying on the ground outside. I used a had saw to cut them down to the desired heights. I decided to make them different heights to add some character to my pumpkins. I have seen bags of wood pieces at Dollar Tree if you do not have access to branches or a hand saw to cut them down to size. Make sure to press down every item you are gluing down to insure they are glued down well. The glue will seep through the burlap and get your hands messy. So, you could use your branch you are using for a stem to help press down the leaves so that your hands will not get sticky. Then just apply a little more glue to your stem before glueing it down as well.
The pumpkins were still missing something. I had recently purchased these beautiful sunflowers from Dollar Tree, that I was just itching to use on a project. These little sunflowers were the perfect last touch my pumpkins needed. They made a huge difference and really finished off the pieces. I used the smaller bag of sunflowers. These sunflowers also come with a wire attached to them. So, I used that wire to wrap the sunflowers around the pumpkins. You could also glue the sunflowers down if you want. I just loved how they turned out.
