Cashmere Pumpkins!

When you can pick up great fall sweaters at the thrift store for $1, but live in arizona and can't wear them, what's a girl to do?

Some make lemons out of lemonade! I made pumpkins out of sweaters...
Aren't they adorable? Let's take a closer look...
Closer...
This little cream one is made from a mens 100% cashmere sweater! The little key was picked up at a yard sale (part of a scrapbook kit) for .25.
The large orange one is made from the body of the sweater.
The little green one is half of a sleeve. Now, I didn't come up with this on my own. Deb Kennedy over at Hummadeedledee designed these. She gives a great tutorial here. I opted to use jute, rather than twine for a more rustic look. Also, I discovered you can use the body of the sweater if you want jumbo pumpkins. Give Deb a visit and let her know how creative she is. Now, what are the pumpkins sitting on? A tablecloth made from pages of an antique book (librarians- please cover your eyes) Laura and I took a little time out for a pedicure and inspiration shopping- we headed straight to Anthropologie. Do they provide inspiration? Absolutely. Not only were we able to see what's really current in fashion right now (ruffles and tweed oh my!) but their decorating ideas are one of a kind. They had covered a table in their kitchen area with glued together Guest checks. The one's that look like these...It was quite stunning, but the wrong colors for my house. So I thought, why can't I make one with antique book pages? I'd like to still apply a few coats of mod podge and sewn a zig zag stitch around the edge, but I was anxious to get my pumpkins displayed. Here's how I made the table runner...

I measured my table to decide how big I needed to make the cover. Then I ripped out the pages one at a time (I warned the librarians) from an antique readers digest set- This story is the Count of Monte Carlo. I wanted the frayed edge from the ripping to be on the outside, so make sure you line them up correctly. I then figured out how to arrive at 21" long. 8 pages overlaping each other by 1 1/4 inch. I used a tape measure to make sure each page overlapped the same. After making the two long sides, I followed the same procedure for making the top and bottom then glued them all together using a glue stick. (NOTE: You'll have to make the ripped edge yourself on the tops of the pages for some of the corners) For the middle I wanted it to be all mismatched. I also liked when I accidentally glued two pages together- when I pulled them apart one ripped a little and some of the words transferred from one page to another. To replicate this "mistake" I just randomly glued pages together like this...
Let them dry for a few minutes and then pulled them apart. Here's the finished glued together cover...
I inked the edges, but the yellow is the actual patina of these pages- I love that! The possibilities are endless! You could do recipe cards for a ladies lunch, postcards, maps, movie theater tickets, carnival tickets, etc. You're going to see a lot more of these in my house! I think this makes the perfect setting for my little pumpkins...
What do you think? Love, Kelly.

P.S. Don't forget to link up to our first ever party. We want to see all your trashy finds and designs! The link is just below this post.

Linking up to:

Get Your Craft On Thursday @ Life As Lori

Transformation Thursday @ The Shabby Chic Cottage

Strut Your Stuff @ Somewhat Simple

Show Off Your Stuff @ Fireflies And Jellybeans

Thrifty Thursday @ Tales Of Bloggeritaville

Hooking Up W/HoH @ House Of Hepworths

I Made It @ Everything Etsy

Vintage Thingie Thursday @ The Colorado Lady