Fall Mantel with Brown Paper Bag Flowers

Hello friends! I'm really excited to show you how our fall mantel turned out this year. It's sometimes hard for me to strike the right balance between full, but not cluttered and the scale of things messes me up a lot, too. But I think I got it right this time.

Special thanks to A Place For Us for her amazing paper bag flower tutorial! I followed her directions to the letter and was pleased to watch mine turn out just like I hoped.

Perhaps you've already seen my pressed fall leaf pictures, but here they are again next to a couple of gourds I got at Hobby Lobby (during last year's 90% off clearance sale!). The green glass vase is from an upscale shop in Grand Haven, Michigan, but I got it on clearance. (I'm a sucker for green and blue glass.) And the leafy branch inside it is just from JoAnn's.

On the left side of the mantel, I propped the acorn frame we made a couple of years ago from the hundreds of acorn caps we collect on our fall hikes. I never wrote up a tutorial on this one, though, so if you want one, leave me a comment! The flannel stuffed pumpkin was also from Hobby Lobby last year. And the mercury glass votives are another DIY project of mine, as you may well remember.

So that's it! I'm really happy with it. Now on to decorating the foyer for Halloween!