Homemade Serenity: Make It! Apple Print Bunting

Wow. I have no idea where the time has gone. I looked at my calendar and then looked at my yard and realized autumn was well and truly upon us. Leaves are falling, canning is complete, the garden is tucked away for the winter, and somehow we've managed to go weeks without doing any organized crafting, save a few random crayon colored pictures.

You might remember earlier this year when I managed to score a car load full of burlap coffee bags for free. I used the rattiest, dirtiest bags as weed barrier in my garden - I even planted potatoes in one, which worked out well and will be repeated in the garden next spring. I pulled the nicest bags - the ones with interesting prints, clean burlap, and fewest tears and placed them carefully in a pile in our garage, thinking I might do something crafty with them.

As I was sharing an apple with my son last week, I remembered seeing an apple print project on
Martha. I knew as I watched juice dribble down The Boy's chin, exactly what we were going to do with that burlap.

For this project you'll need:

Burlap - free is best, but you can buy it from a fabric store as well.
Red, black, and green tempura paint
Paint brushes
Shallow plates to hold paint
Scissors or a rotary cutter
An apple
Fork
Newspaper.

I pulled out my fabric mat and my rotary cutters and made short work of a burlap bag. I cut twelve 6"x6" squares and placed them in a single layer on some newspaper to catch drips. Slicing my apple in half, I used a fork to pierce the skin and create a handle.

I filled two separate plates with paint. One red and one green. I had The Boy liberally paint the apple with green paint and start stamping.

After the apples were dry, I took some black tempura paint and a small, fine brush to add some apple seeds and a stem to each print. Using hemp cord, I found that my coffee burlap bags had a weave open enough that I could just thread the string through. We alternated red and green apples and hung it from our fireplace mantel. The perfect autumn bunting for our living room!