Gnome Decor

October 2017

Boo-tiful Bash: Caravan Classes Artist Halloween Party

Happy Halloween!   I hope you are enjoying a spooky sweet day that’s filled with terrifyingly tasty treats and creative fun!  My favorite way to celebrate any holiday is with good friends, family, and crafts, so when I heard Caravan Classes was having an Artist Halloween Party, I made plans to attend this fun event with my mom.  Caravan Classes is an amazing local business that offers art classes, parties, events and custom art projects for both kids and adults.  They have a studio by the Noblesville, Indiana courthouse square and also a vintage camper which serves as a…

Covered Bridges, Crafts, and Country Roads: Fall Fun at the Parke County Covered Bridge Festival

Fall always flies by at record speed for me, and this year is no exception.  It’s one of the busiest times of the year for me at work and home.  I love autumn events, but finding time to check off my fall bucket list can be a challenge.  I decided to take a day off work so Mom and I could attend the covered bridge festival since we hadn’t been in several years.  The Parke County Covered Bridge Festival is a ten day event which begins on the second Friday in October each year.  It is…

Get Ghosted by this Classic Halloween Candy Craft

My mom has been making ghost suckers for Halloween since I was a little girl in the 1970s. She hands them out to trick-or-treaters in little goody bags with other fun candy and trinkets. These spooky-cute lollipops are a quick and frugal craft. You can fill a haunted house with them in no time at all! Use them for: Halloween party favors Candy for trick-or-treaters Halloween treats for kids, classrooms, neighbors Boo bags   Supplies: Round lollipops (Tootsie Roll pops work best) Flat (rectangular) box of Kleenex Black rug yarn Black cardstock Craft glue Standard…

Squarecrows: Danville Celebrates Their 10th Annual Scarecrow Festival on the Courthouse Square

Just 20 miles west of downtown Indianapolis, the small town of Danville, Indiana puts on a festive fall display of scarecrows each year from October 1-31. This year is their 10th annual display of creative scarecrows designed by local businesses and civic groups.  My mom and I strolled around the square on a lovely warm Friday evening just before sunset.  We’d stopped there on our way home from the Parke County Covered Bridge Festival.  I’ll be blogging about our trip to the Covered Bridge Festival this week. Thirty-one scarecrows are displayed on all four…

Dress Up your Desk with Washi Tape

Washi you doing for the next five minutes?  I have a quick, easy and inexpensive DIY project to share that uses washi tape to dress up boring office supplies.  There’s something so satisfying about a super simple DIY to jumpstart your creativity when you’re short on time and inspiration! You can use any office supplies that have a plain, smooth surface. Plastic, metal, wood or paperboard surfaces work well.  Washi tape can be found at any craft store in the paper crafting section or office supply store near the post-it notes.  You can even get…

A Giveaway to Celebrate World Card Making Day!

October 14 UPDATE!  We have a winner!  Barbara Shreve won the set of three cards!  Thank you to everyone who entered! *** World Card Making Day is celebrated each year on the first Saturday in October.  It started in 2006 as a way to encourage crafters to get a jump on crafting for the holiday season. What better way to celebrate than with Gnome Décor’s handmade card set giveaway?  We’re celebrating the site’s launch with this freebie. You can enter to win this set of three cards three different ways.  Choose one, two or all three methods…

Halloween Magic:  A Bewitching Pumpkin Fairy Garden (Green Thumb Not Required!)

Artificial fairy gardens can be just as fun as fairy gardens made with real plants and flowers.  They’re a fun accent for your home all year round.  And during the colder months, you’re limited to indoor fairy gardens or artificial gardens anyway (fauxry gardens?), so that’s the perfect time to try one.  In past years, I’ve enjoyed making fairy gardens for Christmas and Valentine’s Day using artificial snow.   This is my first year bringing my Halloween fairy garden indoors.  The last couple of years, I’ve had one outside. As long as they’re…

Festive for Fall: Fairy Garden Seasonal Makeovers

In September I shared my farmers market fall fairy garden. This week I finished transforming the rest of my fairy gardens for fall.  Fall fairy gardening is especially fun because there’s no planting required!   I get to focus on decorating, my favorite part.  You can pull out any dead growth caused by summer heat spells or early fall chill, and fill in those areas with figures. Likewise you can trim back and pull out overgrown plants to make room for your decorations. My main problem is overgrowth, so the layout of my fall gardens is determined by the choice…