In order to help you celebrate the coming of fall (next week!) and Constitution Day (September 17th – everyone ready to throw a political party?!), I thought I’d share how I made this patriotic fall wheat centerpiece/mason jar bundle this week.
I take a lot of joy in putting up (simple) decorations for various seasons, and fall is one of my absolute favorites (Constitution Day is, too, but we pretty much celebrate that year-round in our neck of the woods). I’m sure it comes at no surprise, but we have a bit of patriotic decor throughout our house, so it’s fun to tastefully incorporate it into seasonal decorations as well.
Here’s the entryway table I put together yesterday:
I think simple seasonal decor helps invite people into the space we call home. We really enjoy having people over, and honestly, I really like making my home inviting for those of us who live here, too! Life is difficult enough – a little bit of beauty in our home gives us and our guests a place of warmth and rest. At least, that’s my philosophy.
I bought a few things on sale at Hobby Lobby a couple of weeks ago in anticipation for the fall season. I gathered up a few things I already had around my house, put them in a pile with the few things I got at Hobby Lobby, and then thought about doing this wheat centerpiece idea to add a subtle patriotic flare to my fall entryway decor – how perfect to add the line, “…for amber waves of grain,” from the song, “America the Beautiful” to a display of a bundle of wheat. It was so easy to assemble and I’m so pleased with how it turned out, so I’m excited to share it with you!
And, now that my entryway is put together for fall, I also want to share IT with you in case you’re looking for some extra inspiration to do the same. I don’t know about you, but I am always looking for new ideas, especially ones that are reasonable for me – both time-wise and budget-wise. After I saw how easily and inexpensively I was able to put together this entryway table, I decided I have to share it in case it’s helpful for you, too.
Here’s the super easy tutorial for making the patriotic wheat centerpiece (which, by the way, I made for LESS THAN $4!). (The only thing I had to buy for the centerpieces was the wheat – I already had everything else around my house.) Then head over here to see how I assembled the entire entryway table for about $15!
Let’s get started!
You’ll need:
- A mason jar (or other container to hold the wheat – I bet a lot of things would be cute! A pitcher, a tin can, a vintage canister, a glass milk jug, etc.)
- Wheat bundle (I picked mine up at Hobby Lobby – I got it for $3.59; it was 40% off of $5.99)
- Small flag (you can get these at Hobby Lobby or Walmart – I already had one)
- A small piece of wood for the sign (I used a Christmas ornament I bought from Michaels a couple of years ago that I found in one of my craft boxes – you can use a bunch of different things for this as long as the material is wood. You can even just get a wood square at Hobby Lobby or Michaels and drill a small hole in it for the ribbon – easy!)
- Ribbon to hang the sign on the jar
- Scissors
- Black acrylic paint (or a different dark color if you’d prefer)
- Paint brush or painting sponge
- A thick piece of paper/newspaper/paper plate/wax paper to put behind the wood piece as you paint it
- Piece of chalk
- Paper with the image/text to transfer onto the wood (you can make your own, or you can download the one I made for my sign here)
- Any kind of pen for transferring the image/text onto the wood
- Paint pen or white paint with a thin paintbrush (I used this one that I already had from Hobby Lobby, but a thin, stiff paintbrush and white acrylic paint will do the trick, too!)
Start off by painting the back of the wood piece:
Let it dry and then turn it over and paint the front:
Once the front is dry, chalk up the back of the image/text paper. Color over the whole back of the paper with the chalk. (I do the exact same easy transfer process here as I do in this DIY hand lettered cabinet door tutorial – ANYONE can achieve beautiful hand lettering with this technique! I swear by it!) If you want to use the exact same template I created for this part, you can download it here.
Once the back is all chalked up, turn the paper over, place the chalk side down, and center it on the wooden block.
Hold the paper in place as you do this next step (it won’t take long – probably a minute or two) – press firmly on the paper and color in the letters/images to make a chalk impression on the wood.
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Once you’ve colored in the entire image on the paper, remove the paper and see how the chalk transferred onto the wood. Perfect!
Then get your paint pen (or paint and paint brush) and paint/color in the chalked letters. You can tell from this picture below that it it was between this step and the last one that my daughter woke up from her nap. Evidence: the scribbled-on paper. She really wanted to color when she saw me painting in these letters as I got right back to work finishing this after her nap. So, I let her and it was fun. 🙂
Toddler contribution to this project:
Once the white paint is dry (only took mine a few minutes to dry since the lettering doesn’t require a thick coat, but MAKE SURE IT’S DRY before you do this), wipe off the chalk with a damp cloth.
Cut and string ribbon/raffia through the hole in the sign.
Place the wheat and the flag in the mason jar, tie on the sign to the jar, and there you have it!
Look how pretty as part of my entryway table!
If you want to download the image I created to transfer onto the wood piece, I’m happy to share it with you! Then head over here if you want to learn more about how I assembled my table for about $15 (including that adorable fall sign there in the background)!
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