Not all of us have the opportunity to need a real scarecrow.  Sure, I live a stone’s throw away from corn and cotton fields, but in my little manicured neighborhood, we don’t have to worry too much about crows.

Scarecrows are always one of those quintessential signs of the Fall season to me, though.  So, even though we don’t have trees that change colors or real pumpkin patches down here in Austin, I figured that I could at least have my own version of a scarecrow – an Urban Scarecrow Wreath.  I think it’s so fun, so I put together a tutorial so this fall wreath could be replicated.  It is really simple to put together.

For this tutorial, you only need a few items:

• Foam wreath form
• Old shirt
• Straight pins
• Raffia
• Fake crow
• Fake gourds
• Hot glue gun and glue

1.  Begin by cutting your old shirt across the body, underneath the arms.  Keep the extra fabric that you cut off.  I used an XL men’s shirt that I picked up at Goodwill.  I specifically wanted a plaid one in autumn colors, but any color or print would do.

2.  Wrap the bottom center of your shirt (where the buttons are) around the back of your wreath. and put a few pins in the styrofoam wreath.

3.  Wrap the from part around the front of the wreath so that it covers the raw edge and pins of the bottom of the shirt.  Put a few straight pins under the collar so they are hidden when the collar is folded down.

4.  Next, wrap the extra fabric up and over the back of the wreath, pull it tight and pin into place.  It should make sense when you do it, as you are trying to cover the wreath in the shirt fabric.

5.  Then, pull the front part of the shirt up and over where you just pinned, covering both the pins and the styrofoam.  Pin that into place with a pin right across from the sleeve.

6.  Repeat this process for the other side of the shirt.

7.  Now, take that extra shirt piece that you cut off and pin it to the bottom of the wreath.  Make sure that the buttons on the top of your wreath line up with the buttons on the bottom.  I wrapped the top of mine around the back and pinned it (shown below).  Then, I wrapped the bottom around the back, pulled it tight and pinned it.  Cut off the extra fabric once it’s pinned on the back.

8.  Wrap the sleeves around and around the wreath so that all of the stryrofoam is now covered.  You can pin them on the back and inside the cuffs so that the pins won’t show.  On one side, I had to put a twist in the sleeve on the back of the wreath so that the cuff buttons would be facing out.

How cute would this be with a tie on the neck hanging down in the open part of the wreath for Father’s Day?  Adorable!

That’s the end of the detailed “steps.”  The next part is where you get to get creative!

I took a pair of Tom’s old jeans and cut one of the legs off, right under the seat.  I cut that leg long ways so that I had 2 long pieces of denim.  I knotted them and then hung the long strip just like I hang wreaths with a long piece of ribbon.

I cut some handfulls of raffia and hot glued them inside the collar and cuffs.  Yes, you will likely burn your fingers a bit in the process – but it’s worth it.  The more haphazard your raffia “hay” is, the more awesome it will look.

I hot glued a few more pieces of raffia on the bottom of the wreath and then glued a little fake pumpkin and a little gourd beside it.  Then, I hot glued this cute crow on top of the pumpkin.  I bought the crow and gourds at Michael’s.  The Dollar Tree also has crows, but all of the ones I found looked like they had mange.

The end result is my urban scarecrow – Plaid shirt + jeans + hay.  Way more fun and funky than old clothes draped across a broomstick, right?

I have such a love/hate relationship with wreaths.  When they are full and fluffy and make a statement, I love them.  When they are wimpy and skinny and just a bunch of “stuff,” I hate them.  I am really, really deep, y’all.

I get easily bored with only having a wreath on my front door, so I started to explore some options for hanging them on interior doors, too.  There’s no reason why I should only have one awesome wreath in my home at a time.  Interior wreaths can be a bit tricky, but I happened to come up with an idea that I think could really work in everyone’s home.  I call them “Charmed Wreaths.”

My inspiration for the charmed wreath was to create one that was unexpected and tells a little story about you.  This wreath, made from a length of fabric, some strips of ribbon, an unused picture frame and some spray painted dollhouse chairs hints, to my obsessive love of painted furniture.

Just like a traditional charm bracelet carries charms that remind you of important things in your life, a charm wreath displays those types of important things, too.  You could add “charms” of pretty much anything you can think of – ballet shoes, heirloom silver cups, old spools of thread – anything small is fair game.

To hang this particular wreath, I looped a length of fabric around the frame like I hang wreaths with ribbon on my front door.  I folded it to form a few pleats, and nailed it to the top of my office door with finishing nails.  I hot glued the thin black ribbon around the little chairs, and I nailed them to the top of the door, too.  After the paint on the chairs dried, the whole thing took me about five minutes to put together.  Obviously, you could use a more traditional grapevine wreath, but I thought that a frame would be more fun with these particular colors.

I did stick a few glue dots on the bottom corners of my frame to better attach it to the door.  Otherwise, it was banging every time I opened and closed my office door.

I think this is such a fun and easy way to display some {more} personality in my home.  My office door is right off of the playroom, so I think it really lends itself to the playfulness I’m trying to bring to that room’s decor.

I think I’d like to add one with Lego on Zack’s door and maybe one with little dolls on Emma’s.  Or maybe Hot Wheels and Ponies.  Or maybe Star Wars and Minnie Mouse.  I could even do a combination of everything they liked.  The good thing is that it would take me only a few minutes to change it up.

What do you think about my idea for “charmed wreaths”?  What would you put on your wreath?