An Uncomplicated Life Blog: DIY Fall Fireplace Hearth

Monday, August 15, 2016

DIY Fall Fireplace Hearth

This fun  fall fireplace hearth is an easy DIY and creates precious memories with your children



Yup, I'm coming back from my summer vacay to jump right into... FALL Y'ALL! Here's some fact-y-truth: I wasn't going to start talking about fall until September. I realize it's August. However, I also realize that stores are now stocked with tons of fall goodies, and if you want the best selection, you gotta shop now! I remember the first year we moved to Dallas, I didn't even attempt to get the dogs their Halloween costumes until October. I went to a pet store and they were already tearing down Halloween for Christmas... I learned that the best preparers are the early preparers. So, here I am in August, blasting you with a fun DIY. It's cool, if you don't like fall, we'd probably not get along anyway. If you do, then check out this sweet DIY fall fireplace hearth. It enables you to make some memories (and mementos) with your children by decorating together.

A fun fall decor DIY that you and your kids can do! Decorate interior or exterior spaces with this fall and Halloween craft #fall #homedecor #seasonaldecorating #halloween

Fall is still far too warm here to use our fireplace, so I feel comfortable decorating the hearth. We likely won't have a fire until December, which gives me plenty of time to cover it in all the pumpkins and glitter! Sorrynotsorry, hubs. Also critical to the South is to not use real pumpkins. No kidding y'all, I learned this just last year: The heat makes them rot. And rot fast. So while this would be more fun with real pumpkins, I bought fake for longevity. The bonus is that I'll have them for years to come, and will probably get all sentimental on too much wine with how little these hands and feet are compared to how big my boys have gotten.




I'm reminiscing and my children literally just did this craft two weeks ago. Anyway... On to the DIY!


Here's what you'll need:
DIY Fall Fireplace Hearth

- Faux pumpkins (I did a mix of white and orange)
- Acrylic paint (I did silver and gold but anything that fits your decor would be great)
- A wet rag you can use to immediately wipe the paint of your children's hands because those kids move quick and want to get that paint on EVERYTHING.

Apply the paint to your children's hands or feet liberally. Take your faux pumpkin and stamp their painted hand or foot on it. I got two stamps out of the paint application before I needed to apply more. Be as fast as you can with stamping the pumpkin, as the plastic is slippery and the print gets distorted if your child slides his or her hand around. I found that the younger the child, the easier it was to use feet instead of hands. Henry is 2 and was juuuuuuust barely old enough to not be too squiggly for the hand print. Feet are definitely easier for babies and toddlers! The excellent part of acrylic on the plastic pumpkin is that if a print gets smeared, just wipe it off and try again. The paint will come right off so it's easy to do a few "practice" stamps before you start to get some good ones.

Let the pumpkins fully dry, about 2-3 hours. You can do what I did and do a combination of painted and non-painted pumpkins, or paint all of them. After they're dry, tie bows on the stems. First, I cut the ribbon into equal lengths for each pumpkin. Then I tied them on to the stems, using a knot just like you do when you tie a shoe. With the shape of my pumpkins (short and wide) I found that it looked best with a small bow with long end tails, so I shorted the round part of the bow.

Tips for a prettier bow on your seasonal decorations:

Tips and tricks for tying the prettiest bow on your seasonal decorations #seasonaldecorating #seasonaldecor #fall #falldecorating

To make the bow more pretty, I cut about a 2 inch piece of ribbon, then folded it in on itself into thirds. I then wrapped that around the center knot. This ribbon had small wires along the edges, and that was enough to keep the piece around the center. But if your ribbon of choice doesn't, use a glue gun and adhere the decorative piece over the center knot of the bow. Finally, I cut a deep V into the ends of the bow for a more polished look. This also helps the ribbon from fraying, so yay bonus!




From this point, it's all up to you how you want to arrange them! I found some glittery acorns at a craft store that I thought were fun, but my toddler also found them fun so they're being moved into a glass bowl on our formal dining room, lest they end up all over the house and half chewed by dogs and tots. I have some additional pumpkins to add to this mix, but they're more Halloween than just a simple fall, and hubs' eye roll game would be strong if I started decorating for Halloween before mid-September even hit. I'll add those to the mix once it's time! The ribbons can also be switched out to a more Halloween-themed ribbon. Just keep the bows in storage for next year, because that decorative ribbon aint cheap, amirite? You could also keep these out through Thanksgiving and add gourds to make it more seasonal.

Want more tips on crafting? Check out my Products I Love page!

This DIY fall fireplace hearth is easy to do! The painting only takes about 15 minutes from start to clean up (my timed pace for two kids and two pumpkins) and my bow hacks make tying your own ribbon easy. They're great to transition into Halloween and into Thanksgiving, too. Happy Fall, y'all!

26 comments:

  1. Ahhh I am so ready for Fall!
    Love the fake pumpkins idea - ours always rot quite quickly too - so much in fact that we didn't even get any last year! I know - fail!

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  2. I'm still in Summer Mindset I am not ready for fall! But your so right I better get ready other wise i'm going to miss out on the good stuff!

    Saprina Danise
    www.SaprinaD.com

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  3. Look at you, my little crafty DIY'er!! This is so cute, Paige, and I for one have been ready for fall in summer began!

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  4. AH the little chubby feet and hands are adorable! Love the gilded touch though! x

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  5. Awwwww I love this! I love how it's interactive and involves the little ones too!

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  6. Super cute! I am ready for it to be fall. I will have to try out the white hand pumpkins with my kids this year:)

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  7. this is so cute, and such a good idea! ew to rotting pumpkins though. gross.

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  8. Oh I live that you're doing fall already!!! I can't wait and have been thinking about it! I'll be doing this with my boys!!
    Keala
    www.recipeforasweetlife.com

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  9. How cute!! I think I'll do this with the grand babies!!

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  10. Stop it. This is THE CUTEST thing ever. How have you tapped in to my post-baby hormones?! My little 4 day old baby is snoozing and I'm a mess looking at these pumpkins and wanting to do that exact same thing this fall! Pinning!

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  11. Oh I love the hand print and foot print! That is just adorable!

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  12. So pretty! I love using pumpkins as decoration! I adore the footprints on the pumpkin......so fun!

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  13. I love this idea with the hands and feet!!! Will definitely do this this year with my twin baby girls and 4 year old!

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  14. This is one of my favorite fall DIYs! I didn't do it with A but want to know with both kids. Such a great keepsake. Yay for fall being just around the corner!

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  15. Well this is just adorable and now I want to make one! lol Thanks for sharing!

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  16. Such a cute idea! I too made the mistake and purchased real pumpkins one year only to have them mushy and stinky..so this is a wonderful alternative. Thanks so much :)

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  17. This is so cute! I am totally counting down to fall. Love this!

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  18. I love fall wreath's so much so that i had one up for 3 years straight - didn't even care LOL! xo, Biana -BlovedBoston

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  19. I love this Fall DIY idea! BTW that little ones footprint on the pumpkin is absolutely adorable!

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  20. I love the little foot prints, they are so cute! The fake pumpkins are a great idea because you can save them for the following years.

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  21. I am obsessed with capturing hand and footprints of our little guy! Wish I did this his first November! :( I'll start this year.

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  22. What a great idea! These are so cute. I'm going to have to try something like this with my boys.

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  23. This is such a cute idea! I don't have kids, but my sister does. I bet she would love to do a project like this with her girls!

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  24. I am so excited and ready for it to be Fall. I love all of the decorations, fashion and the food that comes along with Fall. I would love to do something like this with my future kids.

    www.iambryantw.blogspot.com

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  25. Very cute- love the look of those white pumpkins!

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  26. Ooh your decor is so cute! I love the little personal touch!

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