2011 Ideas : Colorful Fall Projects

Maple Leaf Pillow
Add fall color to you home with inspiration from one of the season's prettiest elements -- fallen leaves. Place a leaf on a photocopier and enlarge it to a make a pattern. Cut it out of wool felt and attach it to a purchased pillow using iron-on fusible backing. A blanket stitch finishes it in style.
Editor's Tip: Create a trio (or more) of pillows featuring different felt colors yellow, red, and deep green to capture the season.


Branch-Painted Vase
Acrylic paint markers are great tools, especially in a freehand design such as this one on a pretty fall vase. Choose two shades of brown and draw bare trees; cut tiny leaf shapes from pressed leaves or cardstock and use adhesive dots to attach to the vase.


Patterned Fabric Wall Display
Pretty patterned fabric offers inspiration for this wall sculpture. Make color copies of fabric and attach to plastic mailing tubes with double-sided tape. Stack and stagger on a wall, using strong adhesive dots to hang.


Design a Fall Display Box
Put on a show of autumn color with a collection of small jewelry boxes. Paint the inside and outside of the boxes; glue autumn images ferns, pinecones, leaves to the bottom of each box, then glue each box together. Hang it as a display or use it to collect keepsakes.


Fall Flag Centerpiece
Creating a just-yours fall centerpiece is easy. Start with muted colors and patterns of scrapbook paper; cut into pennant shapes and use adhesive scrapbook letters to spell out words. Punch two holes in each pennant and tie to a twig; tuck all into a glass jar filled with popcorn.


Fall Stools in Autumn Designs
Your digital camera is your ultimate DIY tool to create these colorful stools. Take a photo from overhead of pumpkins; enlarge and crop to fit a stool top and print. Choose paint in the same color as the image; paint the stool and dry. Adhere the digital image with decoupage and seal with clear polyurethane.


Natural Fall Table Display
Rely on nature to do the work for you with this lovely centerpiece. Place milkweed seeds inside a glass vase and nestle creamy and striped gourds of various sizes around to fill a short-sided basket.


Fall Branch Table Display
The berries of autumn are a stunning element in this centerpiece combination. Start with white beans in a tall glass vase and add a sturdy stalk of a crabapple tree.


Pumpkin-Theme Plate Design
Digital images are a great accent for inexpensive projects. Take this place setting: An image of a pumpkin was printed and adhered to the bottom of the plate with decoupage.


Mushroom Design Fabric Display
Take a wall from blah to boring with a few easy-to-find materials. Download a mushroom stencil from free clip-art online (or draw your own using ours as inspiration), and cut out the shape in vivid patterned fabric. Iron the fabric onto fusible webbing and use Mod Podge to adhere to a surface a wall, for example, or a large dresser, too.


Fabric-Covered Fall Lamp
Fun fabric can instantly transform a ho-hum lampshade. Use an existing shade as a pattern; cut a scrap of fall-color material to fit (overlap the edges). Adhere with spray adhesive or fabric glue; fold the bottom and top edges under and glue, too.


Fall Leaf Art
Add one-of-a-kind pizzazz to your walls with stencils and medium-density fiberboard. Look on designerstencils.com for an image; enlarge several copies in various sizes and arrange on a piece of stained fiberboard. Paint in some of the stencils and around others, and use painter's tape to create stripes of various widths.