the Creative Orchard: November 2015

Have you ever wanted to stray from the "traditional" COLORS of Autumn for your FALL home decor or Thanksgiving event? If so, these DIY ARTSY Autumn Leaves might be exactly what you have been looking for. When I originally started thinking about decorating my home for FALL and needed some inspiration, I must admit I felt underwhelmed by all the same "traditional" stuff that I see year after year. The majority of examples online, decorations in magazines and products in stores always seem to have a very similar style and color scheme to me. I was feeling a little stuck and uninspired. But I decided to go shopping anyway just in case there was something out there that could get a custom Creative Orchard makeover. Then, I came across some plain burlap leaves in the DIY FALL section at Hobby Lobby. At that moment a CREATIVE IDEA came to mind... what if I hand painted these boring khaki leaves with all my favorite bright COLORS of the RAINBOW? If you can't FIND what you are looking for, CREATE IT!!!

So I went home, busted out the craft paint and started painting small areas with each COLOR all over the leaf until it was completely covered. The abstract painted pattern kinda resembles RAINBOW camouflage. Then I went one step further by outlining the indented veins and outside edges of the leaf with gray craft paint to add more contrast. WOW!!! The ARTSY Autumn Leaves turned out more beautiful than I imagined! I liked them so much that I rushed back to the store and found a burlap pumpkin, burlap leaf clusters, burlap flowers and GIGANTIC burlap maple leaves. I repeated the same exact paint process as before on all the new burlap products I found. I scattered the ARTSY Autumn Leaves all over the dining table for my FALL tablescape and also placed some inside a modern bowl with my DIY "Eggcorns". SUPER DUPER HAPPY with the results and I am positive that I will ENJOY them for years to come. Please leave a comment if you CREATE your own ARTSY Autumn Leaves to let us all know how they turned out and how you chose to decorate with them for FALL. Below are step-by-step pictures of my painting process which are pretty self explanatory and I also included some decor INSPIRATION...

If you would like to see more DIY FALL IDEAS follow #createfall on Instagram!