Fall Pumpkin 4x4s - Decorating on a Dime

My husband went away a few weeks ago for a guys fishing weekend and while he was away I decided to spend the weekend doing crafts. Initially it was to be all Christmas crafts but I decided to throw some Fall items in too.  You know the adage, when the cats away, the mice will play....well in this house it is when Daddy's away, mommy will craft!

You might have seen in previous posts, I have a corner sink in my kitchen. I absolutely love the 4 windows that surround it but I have always had some difficulty deciding what to do on the large triangle shaped ledge behind it. How do I decorate the little nook? I have thought it might be nice to make that my seasonal decoration spot. In the summer I had herbs there, at Christmas I put my ornament tree and at Halloween I tend to put gourds.

I had a left over 4x4s from another craft, so I decided I would cut 1.5 inch  slices off the end of the 4x4 on my husband's miter saw. I have only used this a few times since he bought it so I had to work up a little nerve. So I put on the gorgeous safety glasses he left out for me (why can't they make some that actually fit my small head), plugged in the mighty machine and cut 4 slices of the 4x4. I was grinning from ear to ear after I was done. I ran inside and said to the kids "Look what Mommy just did!" They weren't nearly as excited as I was.

I lightly sanded the rough edges and I painted each piece with a mix of pumpkin orange and burnt umber acrylic paint.

I wanted a deep but not bright orange so this mixture worked well.

I had some large branches left over from the other craft involving the 4x4, so I cut them in 2-3 inch sections. I liked the ones cut on an angle the best.

I hammered in a long finishing nail (I think that is what they are called - the ones with no real head on them) appropriately half way.

 I then pulled the nail out of the 4x4.

I flipped the nail over and hammered the head of the nail into the hole I just made. I honestly don't know if this damages the head of the hammer, but I assumed it was ok. My husband hasn't said anything about it yet, so all is good.

I hammer the nail approximately halfway into the pilot hole.

I took the twig and lined the middle up with the nail.

Hammer the top of the twig until the other half of the nail goes into the twig.

Here are the 4 done. Aren't they cute? I like the ones with the knobs on the twig and the one on the angle. I roughly sanded along the edges with a low grit sandpaper to give it a worn weathered look.

I then cut out of vinyl the words Fall and Boo! on my Cricut. So on one side of the pumpkin it says Fall in white and the other side has Boo! in black. I like the idea I can put these somewhere you can see both sides.

I tied some raffia around the stems and made some curly ques with left over paper covered wire from making the wire pumpkins.

I am very please with how they turned out. The wood has started to dry and it has cracked on a couple of the edges making it look a little more rustic, I like that.

So since I had all the materials on hand, this project cost me nothing.

What do you think? Do you do seasonal decorating?

Stephanie