DIY Fabric Pumpkins Using Recycled Items (Instead of Toilet Paper Rolls)

Last year, we made fabric pumpkins using toilet paper rolls for the "stuffing," but this is 2020 and well, you know, we don't want to waste any t.p.! lol So what's a girl to do to make cute and easy fabric pumpkins? 

Well, I went digging in the trash! You can watch my video on facebook or through on IGTV to see how I used several repurposed items to create the center of my pumpkins. 

Living a ways from town and craft supply stores, avoiding making extra trips to the store, and trying to keep our cost of goods down, we looked around and found ways to stuff our pumpkins, all while recycling and repurposing items. This also went a long with the theme for our repurposing workshop we held in August. There, I had a few pumpkins made and ask attendees to guess what was insides were made of. 

In this example, I used empty spools of ribbon, with just a little bit of polyester stuffing. Using the spool, we saved it from the trash and reduced our need for as much stuffing. I've also used a "naked" softball (I used the skins to make flowers and had the ugly ball left over) and an empty shipping tape spool.

 Look around and see what kind of goods you can repurpose and save from the landfill. In our workshop, one lady even used a wine bottle for the center of the pumpkin with the stem being the neck of the bottle and cork. It turned out really cute! I've even thought about using the empty container of mixed nuts as the center of one. 

 

For our fabric, we cut up a skirt we had purchased at a thrift store. I picked this one for its rich colors and textures. In addition, we used some jute twine, a wooden spool, fringe trim, and a silk sunflower for accents. We like using whatever we can find at hand, so we use random trims, ribbon, lace, twigs, and flowers that are in reach on our work table or tidbits left after other jobs. 

 

These are fun to make and you can create them with a variety of fabrics and trim you have on hand. So look around the house and see what you can use in a new way. You'll feel good making something pretty from something that was headed for the trash! As we say "rescue, recycle, and repurpose!" 

P.S. If you made pumpkins last year, using toilet paper rolls, you've got a hidden stash, just in case you need it ;)

Rust is a Must!

Of course it is... Rust is a must! A new collection of must-have rustic treasures and tees have hit the websites recently!

I love all things

• tattered
• shabby
• cracked
• chippy
• old
• worn
• rusty
• weathered
• vintage

Yes, yes, yes! We do love all these things on the list above and decided to create a t shirt with this design! At first we had the white shirt below, but honestly I seldom wear white, so I added the graphic to the silver tee above. I figured I can't be the only one, so there's options now. I've also done it on a turquoise baseball tee, as someone's request and loved how it looked on it as well!

In case you missed our recent announcements, we have also added a NEW website: www.RustandRomance.com 

Our etsy shop, gypsyfarmgirl.etsy.com is still up and running and the items have been listed on each site, so you can shop wherever you prefer. If you are on Facebook, you can shop directly from our page as well! 

 Speaking of rusty, weathered and worn things... we've created some door wreath alternatives with old wheels and garden rakes

And because we can't let old barn tin go to waste, just because granddaddy's old hay barn came down in jagged and torn pieces, we made tin birds with keys for wings and bottle cap eyes. This is the first time the tin birds have been listed online. I've made the birds on yard stakes before, but the shipping cost was outrageous for a big box, so we just sold those in person at our events. The last time we made birds, we decided some would be on wire hangers, so they can easily be shipped and you can hang them anywhere you want to! With two sizes, I'm calling them the "mama birds" and "baby birds!" 

 I had random shapes left after cutting the birds out and decided to make butterflies, using keys for antenna and a spindle for the body. These have had some identity crisis as they've been called butterflies, dragonflies, and even bumble bees... I'll let you decide what they are!

 Now even though we love rust, sometimes we need a little sparkle! These new stainless steel water bottles have the glitter effect with vintage style graphics. We never leave home, without taking water or tea with us. With it being summer time, I often need more than one cup, so these water bottles are great to take a refill. When we were at our show last week, I filled my big tumbler with ice tea and took two bottles of water in my bag. I love that they are stainless steel and reusable. There is a very limited quantity of these, so grab them now!

Swinging from the Rafters!

"Ummm, we gotta lotta junk."

"Meee too friend!!!"

Text messages between Angea and I this week, as we prepared for the Mineola Antique Fair. 

Where we gonna put it all.??? It's not all gonna all fit...

Yes, it will. It always does... (but,) we gotta go UP! 

 Today was our workday to get our booth ready for the show this weekend. Angea and I have been doing lots of huntin' and pickin' lately and have lots of new (old) inventory for our booth. So we needed to get more creative with our display. The building has these awesome rafters, so we added more overhead display space.

We used a lariat rope to hang this baby bed spring, then we made S hooks (with baling wire) to hang the buckets, pans, butterflies, a cotton scale and a chandelier. The building is 112 years old and was originally a cotton warehouse, so I'm sure there have been plenty of the old cotton scales used in there. The building has a dock and the railroad tracks are nearby, so that cotton was loaded on the rails, back in the day. (The long metal piece with a hook on it and the two weights are the cotton scale.)

 We also hung a grapevine wreath, but it was parallel to the floor, so it became another pot holder.

 We've got so many items that would make great garden planters! You know, all of us junkers and vintage souls are helping save the Earth by rescuing, repurposing, upcycling, and reusing all kinds of things. Used lariat ropes, hay baling wire, chains, rebar, a piece of a wire fence panel, the bed spring, wreath, and twine were all used to at no additional cost to us! No trips to the store for hardware or supplies!

 We are excited about how our booth looks this month! We are open from 9-5, Friday and Saturday. (the show is held the 2nd weekend of the month.) For more info about the show, check out Mineola Antique Fair website or their facebook page.

We've got several chandeliers hanging around as well and have had our tin signs and a few things hanging from the very beginning of our space, so we just added a few more layers. 

I also wanted to hang this chalkboard somewhere, with our social media links, so visitors could connect with us. Thank goodness, our husbands went with us today and helped with hanging ans attaching things up high! Angea and I couldn't do everything we do, without our guys helping out behind the scenes! 

Junkin Addict and Two Women and a Hoe Features

So I'm scrolling through Facebook on Tuesday and up pops my rusty tin buckets and gazebo in my news feed. I'm like "hey, that's my yard!" I follow Junkin Addict on facebook and she had shared a picture of my gazebo from a few years ago! Although, it was a friend on facebook, that I met through the Backwoods Marketplace, that had shared the post from Junkin Addict. A crazy web we weave on the internet and the algorithms of just how our post are all seen (or not seen, but that's a whole other story)!

Well of course I'm excited to see a page I follow share our yard and several new friends came over to my Facebook page (even though there was not a link to me on her share.)




Now today (Thursday), I was making my afternoon check on Facebook and there was the rusty, bottomless bucket in my news feed, this time by Two Women and a Hoe! They were sweet and kind to share a link to my blog post and the tutorial of how I recycle a bottomless bucket into a hanging flower basket.



Even though the pictures were from 2012, its still fun to see my projects get featured from some popular gardening pages! So if you are new here at GypsyFarmGirl, "Howdy!" Would love for you to follow along with all of our adventures! A little back story on the gazebo - we rescued it from a trash ditch, seriously! There was actually two - our friend saw them, stopped and ask if he could have them, ask us to help load and haul them, in exchange for one of them. A few years later, we junked it up with a fun makeover! In 2012, I made a commitment to no longer have plastic or store bought flower pots in my yard. If they were plastic, they had to be hidden in other containers, hence the reason for the tutorial on how to plant in vintage containers and bottomless buckets. Buckets, cracked crocks, old wheel barrows, and chicken feeders were all salvaged and repurposed into flower containers and my yard in lovingly called The Junk Yard!


Here's a few pictures from the junk yard this spring -