all the leaves are brown...a thanksgiving tree

wow. that happened.
no more halloween.
i finally got the energy last night to take down all of the halloween decor. *sigh. you know, it's funny. i never noticed this until i started blogging-but the stores don't really want us to celebrate thanksgiving. by the time halloween has happened, all of the thanksgiving decor is already off the shelves to make room for christmas. (remember this? why, oh why, michaels must you crush my thanksgiving spirit?) *sigh
 don't get me wrong, i'm a huge fan of christmas. but i'm all about celebrating the holidays in season. so though i've wanted to blog, it feels like i've had craftblock. no thanksgiving ideas were coming.
until last night.

i've talked before about repurposing here (ps. don't judge the pics. they were all taken before my picnik discovery).  typically, i try to re-use as many crafts as possible without looking cheap. as i was taking down my spider tree. i got an idea.  after removing the spiders and branches, i gave the urn a facelift. it's now a lovely shade of ivory. put the same branches back in. threw some pine cones on top of the tissue paper and poof. magic. the beginnings of a thanksgiving tree. 


originially i wanted to get some real leaves to hang from the branches, but last weekend we got snow. in the south. before halloween. what the what? so all of the leaves are pretty dead and browned and definitely wouldn't help me embrace the thanksgiving holiday. so then i thought i'd just cut out some leaves from cool scrap book paper or felt...but then i found these guys.

yet again, the dollar store has saved me. they have these cute little packs of doilies just for your leaf-ing pleasure. and the coolest thing, they already have holes in them at their stems so the only effort i had to exert was standing on my tippy-toes at one point to reach the tallest part of tree to hang a leaf on a small protruding branch. phew. that was a lot of work.
i then took a gold pen and started writing things that i was thankful for. sadly, the ink doesn't show up as well as i'd have liked.
see

but it does add a metallicy feel to the tree. and i dig that. this tree was hands down one of the easiest crafts i've done. i dig that, too.
costs... i already had the urn, i already had most of the filler for the urn. i picked up a pack of pinecones from michaels on clearance (2.50) and i used only a handful. i bought some spray paint (with coupon...3ish dollars) and two packs of leaves (2...ps...i still have a TON of doilies).
so total i spent under $9. and considering i'll be using the rest of the supplies that i got for other thanksgiving projects, i'd say it was even cheaper than that.

things i've learned:
1. when i first opened the doilies,  i couldn't separate them. so i started hanging them in large packs (probably 3-4 doilies stacked on top of each other).this actually worked out well. the color of the larger stacks is much more vibrant than the individual doilies. i finally got a few separated but after i realized how much better the thick stack looks, i stopped separating.
2. metallics. i like them. there, i said it. metallic spray paint, watch out. i'm coming for you.