Fall Decor

I love fall! I love the colors, the cool weather, the pumpkins, roasting marshmallows on a campfire, and decorating! I am in the soapmaking process as promised with all ingredients measured and the goat milk thawing to a slush on the counter but in the meantime I thought I'd post a cute little crafty thing I came up with last night. I'm sure this has been done a thousand times and you can find many variations on the internet but this one I thought of all by myself so I had to share.

The boys were playing with a roll of shipping paper last night and I was in the kitchen trying to find the right vase for the fall flower stems I picked up at the Dollar General Store yesterday. I had a quart canning jar in my hand but was trying to find something to keep the stems from showing through the glass. I glanced to check on the boys and had an "ah-ha" moment. Don't you love those? They weren't happy that I took their roll of shipping paper. For quart jars like the on in the top photo you will need shipping paper cut to size but for pints you can use a paper grocery bag like I did in the following instructions. It's just the right size.


Here's what you need... scissors, twine, paper bag, flower stems and a jar.

Cut down one side of the bag where the fold is and cut out the bottom. You won't need it.

Now take the bag and wad it up...go ahead...crush it....just don't rip it. Roll it, squash it, crush it until it's soft. It took me four minutes to get the paper all softened up while I was catching up on some blog reading this morning.

Now sit your jar on the side with graphics if your bag has them and start pulling the paper up and around the jar pressing the wrinkles down flat. It will have wrinkles. This gives it character!

Pull it all up on top and tie a string around the neck of the jar. I find this easier to do if I hold the jar between my knees. No, there's no picture of me with a jar between my knees! Okay, there was but taken from above my feet looked really silly and I refuse to post it.

When it's all tied up, trim off the top about 2 inches from the string. You want a little extra there so you can shape it up. Fold the top lip back and trim it up evenly with scissors leaving about an inch above the string.
(Pic before trimming)

Tie your twine in a cute bow or add some raffia like I did. Throw in some flower or leaf stems. This one just has leaves.

Decorate for fall and enjoy the colors!

I made that fall/sunflower light block last year. I think they go well together.
Any paper could be used to make there. Tissue paper would give you a wide variety of colors to work with. Newspaper would be an interesting twist. I prefer the paper bag look for fall.
If you try this, feel free to come back and share a link to your pics. I'd love to see them!