Burlap Jack-o-Lantern Door Decoration

I had some fun recently getting my Martha on.  I really do enjoy a variety of crafting.  I'm not super into like some people.  There are many times that I'd rather just buy something already made.  Oftentimes, I can buy it for cheaper than what I could make it myself and save a ton of time in the process.  But I am, by nature, a somewhat creative person.  I've been known to make my kids' birthday party invitations, and put together some pretty great (if I do say so myself) birthday cakes as well.  Many a cold, snowy days have been spent with my kids crafting the days away in our basement when they were much younger. 

I bookmark great ideas all of the time, but alas, time just never presents itself to me.  Now, with my youngest in kindergarten this year, I am finding myself able to do a few more things now that I simply had no time for before.  

I made myself a new decoration for our front door to greet the Halloween season that is upon us.  It was very easy to make and required no supplies that were overly expensive.  I love it!  I wanted to post this early enough in the month so you could make one yourself if you decided to get crafty as well.

Wish I could share where I got this idea from.  I won't lie and say I came up with it myself.  I did a copy and paste from a website and emailed it to myself and now I can't find where it came from. 

What You'll Need:

2-3 yards of orange burlap

1 foam or straw wreath form

glue gun

black felt or craft foam

cardboard

scissors

pillow stuffing

How To Do It:

The original instructions said to use a foam wreath form but I couldn't find any at Michael's so I got the straw one.  It was messy, but easy enough to work with and not that heavy either.  A foam wreath form would be very light weight those.  If you can get a foam one, I would choose that.

Trace around the wreath onto the cardboard.  Cut out the circle shape making sure the cardboard circle is NOT wider than the wreath.  Using the glue gun, glue the cardboard circle to one side of the wreath.  Once it's dry and holds tight, move onto the next step.

Cut out several, maybe 15 or so, long strips of the orange burlap.  Make the strips about 3 inches wide.  They don't have to be perfect.  I wasn't totally Martha, after all!  Be sure your strips are long enough to wrap over and around the form.  You'll understand what I mean when you see the next step.

Pile the pillow stuffing into the center of the wreath form being sure to pile it higher in the middle.  This stuffing literally came from an old pillow I removed from Evan's room last week.  That thing had become so flat.  I can't believe he hadn't complained about neck pain! 

Okay, so you just take the strips of burlap and hot glue one end of the strip to the back on the cardboard, wrap it over the pillow stuffing, securely without mashing it down, and hot glue the other end to the back on the cardboard.  Keep doing that until the stuffing is all covered and all you can see is the burlap, no stuffing or wreath form.  Cut out your eyes, nose and mouth shapes from the felt or craft foam.  I preferred felt for this project.  It has a more natural look to match the natural fibers of the burlap.

Affix the face pieces with the glue gun and you can either rig up some florist wire, twine or do like I did and raid your daughter's hair accessory box for some green ribbon.  Use that to hang your friendly (or scary!) jack-o-lantern to the front door and you will be ready for trick-or-treat night!