It seems it’s getting harder and harder to really enjoy Autumn. After Halloween we seem to be fast forwarding to Christmas more and more each year. I like to try and take some time to really sit and enjoy Fall, Thanksgiving, and all that comes with it. I have loved the saying “Autumn, the years last loveliest smile” for a long time and I decided that maybe I should make a sign to remind us of the good this time of year.

So I made my Autumn Pallet Wood Sign.

The sign started as this pile of pallet wood. I am kind of embarrassed to say that we actually included this in our move from California to Louisiana. I’m sure the movers thought I was certifiable. But I just couldn’t part with all this usable wood!

My hubby cut 4 pieces of the wood for me, I decided to have him leave them rough and rustic.

We just used some pieces of broken pallet boards on the back to connect the 4 pieces of wood. Not really pretty but it serves it’s purpose!

I used my Silhouette to cut the saying out of vinyl. Then I applied to the vinyl to the wood sign. This was a bit of  a painful process because of the roughness of the wood. I just took it really slow and made sure to keep pushing everything back down repeatedly.

Once all the vinyl was down I used some Mod Podge on all the lettering. I did this to prevent as much paint bleeding as possible. Really you just need to use the Mod Podge on the edges where the vinyl meets the wood, but in this case the lettering is so thin that I just went through and used it to cover everything.

Once the Mod Podge was dry it was time to paint. I went into my craft paint stash and grabbed an off white and gold. I used a foam brush to “dab” the paint on instead of  dragging it.

When the paint was dry I removed all of the vinyl to reveal my lettering. There is a little bleeding here and there, but I think overall the Mod Podge did the trick. Especially on wood this rough.

I think the rustic rough wood for this sign is perfect….it seems so appropriate for Autumn.

I love the little gold leaf accent, it just adds a little extra something.

I am so glad that I finally made a sign with this saying……and I absolutely love how the sign turned out!!! Now I have to find a great place for it to go!!!

While you’re here, I’d love if you’d come check out one of my latest projects…..

The holidays are upon us and it’s that time of year for everything festive. The theme for this months JoAnn Fabrics Celebrate the Season Campaign is #turkeytablescapes. Which was a great excuse to get our table Fall ready! I decided to create a beautiful Hanging Fall Centerpiece for my Thanksgiving table.

Hanging Fall Centerpiece:

-Grapevine wreath

-Fall leaves & berries

-Satin Ribbon

-Pumpkins, acorns, etc

-Battery operated candles

-Hot glue gun, glue sticks, and scissors

First I grabbed some Fall foliage and the glue gun. I started gluing down the strands of leaves and berries around the grapevine wreath. You can make the wreath as full as you want, I choose to only add or strand of leaves and one strand of berries.

I used some smaller strands of berries and wrapped them around into a “nest”. The nests were just big enough to hold one of the battery operated candles in it. I glued each next down onto the grapevine wreath evenly around. Then I glued down some pumpkins and acorns sporadically around the wreath.

The ribbon was used to attach the wreath to my chandelier. I glued the ends of the ribbon onto and through parts of the twigs on the under part of the grapevine wreath. I added some sweet little bows to the base of each strand of ribbon.

Once all ribbon, berries, and pumpkins were in place I strung the wreath up to my chandelier. By creating the little berry “nests” I was able to place the candles into them but still be able to pull them out to turn them on and off. This adds a little bit of candle flicker without the danger or sending the whole thing up in flames.

I absolutely love how it turned out. It looks so elegant hanging there above my table.

You can see my Give Thanks Mantel off in the background, my house is looking like Autumn has hit. I love all the earthy and muted colors this time of year. The colors go hand in hand with the feel of Fall, everything slows down a bit and everyone starts to nestle in for the long winter ahead.

If you want to make a Hanging Fall Centerpiece of your own, you can find all of these items at your local JoAnn Fabric Store. Or to find lots of other awesome holiday project ideas make sure you visit the JoAnn Craft Catalog.

And to make your next purchase just that much sweeter, you can grab this awesome coupon to use when you go…..

Simply right click the image and print. It’s that simple!

Disclosure: I was given a gift card toward supplies for this post. All ideas and opinions are my own.