DIY: Fall Tablescape Touches with Vagabond House

This post has been sponsored by Vagabond House, but all opinions and ideas are my own.

I'm delighted to share with you some easy tablescape touches for your place settings, fall decor or your Thanksgiving feast. I've also included some of my favorite pieces from Vagabond House - so sit back, relax and enjoy the show.

It's so easy to set-up a simple, rustic fall tablescape. You just need a few key ingredients - wood, burlap and some gold touches (or maybe another color you'd like?).  

Let me break down how easy it is to make this place setting:

For the leaves, it's easy to sketch a pattern and cut it out by hand, or get a free pattern online (there are tons I tell you), print and cut it. If you're doing a ton of them, it would be handy to have a die-cutter on hand to make them. 

Write the names of your guests on the leaves - if you aren't comfortable with your handwriting, it helps to write it with a pencil first before going over it with ink. Alternatively, you can use gold ink instead of black to add to the gold accents on your table.

It is soooooo easy to make these fall picks! You just need berries, decorative gold sprigs and burlap. I found the berries at Target and the gold sprigs at Dollar Tree (I dismantled one of the Christmas picks they had just to get the gold sprigs). 

Arrange them, and wrap the stalks with some burlap. Glue the edge of the burlap to prevent unraveling. 

Lastly, you need a napkin ring - I chose this pewter acorn and oak leaf napkin ring from Vagabond House at it can easily be dressed up for Christmas as well. 

Insert your napkin into the ring, and then insert your fall pick and finally the leaf place card holder. And you are done! Now let me show you other things I have found at Vagabond House to accentuate your tablescape:

This pewter white oak plate is perfect as a candy dish or a condiment dish. It can easily transition as Christmas decor as well, or even serve as a jewelry dish for your lovely adornments. 

Now onto one of my two favorite pieces - here is my AMAZING cake stand. Well, it's supposed to be a cheese stand, but it can serve a lot of purposes - as you can see here. I love using it as a cake/dessert stand instead and it's pretty big too. It's pictured here with my favorite lemon tart from Trader Joes. I guess the tart is about 8", so it has plenty of room for bigger cakes, and tiered cakes as well. It's the perfect woodland accent to a rustic wedding!

Look at the detail on this little guy! It's just so cool. This must be the most-loved cake stand I have in my collection of cake stands. 

Here's my next favorite - an elk liquor decanter. I must say this is one unique piece that I'll treasure forever. I know liquor bottles look fancy in the first place, but this one just takes it up by a really big notch. 

Again, the detail is fantastic. I can say it's a great gift for a guy who enjoys hunting/liquor/woodland items. There are a ton of those, right? I know a few. :) I chose these pieces because I wanted fun, unique conversation-starting pieces in my home. Vagabond House has a ton of unique pieces - it took me a long time to choose which ones I liked the most. 

With a vision of what you like and the right decor, it's so easy to set up a simple, rustic tablescape for your Thanksgiving dinner or any other gathering. Need more inspiration? Here are other awesome ones you can gawk at for your tablescaping needs:

Peacock Salt Cellars, Pink Salt and a Picnic from A Nest for All Seasons

As always, have fun! :)

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DIY: Stenciled Bee Coasters

This post has been sponsored by Plaid Crafts. I was provided materials and/or compensation, but all opinions are 100% mine.

Today I'll be showing you how I made these bee coasters using Ed Roth Stencil1 stencils from Plaid Crafts (they're available at Jo-Ann Fabric & Craft stores). I am not lying to you - when I got these stencils from the mail, I squealed. I am obsessed with a lot of patterns - the beehive pattern being one of them (remember this photo wall art?) and I was just lucky enough to get them!

My mind swum with what I could do with it - these stencils are large enough to cover large spaces such as walls or pretty big canvases, but I know I don't have the patience to do something like that yet. So I made a couple of things - a set of coasters was one of them. I wanted to try the bee stencil too - it came with a base stencil and a detail stencil and I just found that so cool (because I'm not really one for free-handing details).

What I used were the following:
Coasters
Ed Roth Stencil1 stencil (the beehive one)
FolkArt multi-surface paint
Gold spray paint
Sponge brush
Small paintbrush

First, spray paint your coasters. I used gold as my base, because I love gold (no surprise there :3). Next, take your bee base stencil, position it on your coaster and fill it in with paint. These FolkArt multi-surface paints can be used for indoor/outdoor purposes and on a variety of materials - honestly I love FolkArt paints, they're what I use for most of my projects.

Next, take your detail stencil and position that on top of your stenciled bee base and stipple with a dry brush loaded with just enough contrasting paint. Tip: spray the back of your stencil with some repositionable adhesive (don't spray too much though or you'll end up with something like the photo below when you pull it off).

Since I was too trigger-happy in adding repositionable adhesive, I got some bald marks when I pulled my stencil off. But no worries, there's a solution for that!

If you ever end up with bald marks, fill them in using your base paint and a small brush.

For added detail, I used the honeycomb stencil to add some hexagons on the coaster- filled it in with a light color without washing my sponge brush (hence the grungy, grey-ish white effect that you see). Don't worry about that messy stencil - it's easy to clean. For a glossy effect, you may want to spray it with some clear glaze.

And there you have it! These bees are just in time for Spring, don't you think? I love that it looks so street-arty. Now all that's left is to package it nicely if you're giving it to somebody - and yes, pun intended :)

Hope you enjoyed this project, and don't forget to pin/share if you did! And also, check out these other projects using Stencil1 stencils - see all the awesome designs that they have!

Don't forget to follow Plaid Crafts for more awesome project ideas, inspiration and more!

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{Styled} by Tori Spelling - Customize your Own Jewelry in Minutes

This post has been sponsored by Darice, Inc.  I was provided these items for review, but all opinions are my own.

I think everybody who reads my blog knows I'm obsessed with jewelry - more than half of my DIY tutorials are about those pretty little things (or big, in-your-face ones, depending on your preference). So imagine my happiness when I received a big box of goodies from Darice - mix-n-match jewelry components from the Styled by Tori Spelling line - available exclusively at Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores.

My box of goodies. I nearly died when I opened it.

This line offers everybody the opportunity to be their own jewelry stylist - you can make a necklace or earrings in a few seconds. Mix and match the jewelry parts that you like. You don't even need any tools - yes, friends, even my own little sister can make jewelry on her own. Thinking it's not your style? Don't you worry - these babies come in a ton of different styles to choose from. Anyway, it's really really easy. Do you think I'm kidding? Well, watch  the magic happen:

Isn't it so easy to make pretty dangling earrings? I also love that you can switch it out in a jiffy if you so please.

And the necklace bottoms - they're all so pretty I can't wait to get more to add to my collection (as if I need more jewelry, heeeheee).

You can always use some of the necklace bottoms as bracelets - they make really good statement cuffs. Or use earring components as pendants... or use pendants as earring components. There are so many possibilities! Of course, since I wanted to personalize mine a bit more, I busted out my jewelry making supplies and added a few more chains to this glamorous statement necklace:

I love how the added chain makes it feel less Hollywood glam and more versatile for casual outfits. For those curious about how I added it - I just closed up a 30" length of chain, added my own 'connectors' per segment (eyeballed it) and attached. 

In keeping with the convertibility of this line, I used tiny lobster clasps to attach the chain to the back so it would be easier to unhook the chains if I want my Hollywood glam necklace back - you know, for special dressy occasions. I have these clasps in the middle in case I want to add a charm or an extra something to give my necklace more oomph than it already has.

In summation: For folks who don't have time or skill to make jewelry from scratch, this will give you the option to still make your own. For more experienced jewelry folks, well - this line gives you cute components to customize as you please! And of course, these will make fun giveaways for crafty tween/teen parties. 

But wait, there's more! Darice Crafts is giving away a box of Styled by Tori Spelling goodies valued at $50 - $75 to one of my readers! Isn't that just superb?! Giveaway is open to US residents only. Use the Rafflecopter entry thingy below to enter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget, the new Styled by Tori Spelling line is available exclusively at Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores (Hint: check it out now!). Good luck with the giveaway. And ...that's it for now, folks!

Linking up here:

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