The arrival of fall signals a lot: spicy lattes, fall leaves, pumpkin carving, and decorating your porch and home for the season.

Using mostly natural or recycled materials is a fun way to spruce up the place. It keeps things cheap, cheerful, and virtually junk-free. At the end of the season, you can either recycle or even compost your expired decoration.

If you’re lucky enough to live near a wooded area, searching for decorative items like autumn-colored leaves, acorns, and pine cones adds extra adventure to the project. However, craft stores and online vendors can keep you well stocked with fall-inspired accessories.

Check out these fun DIY wreaths to decorate your fall-themed porch, mantel, or stairway.

Fabric scrap garland

Source: Kimberly Hind/YouTube

If you love fabric work, chances are you have a whole pile of scraps waiting for the perfect project. And here it is, a Garland of autumn scraps. Uproot all brown, tan, dark green, red, yellow and orange autumnal pieces. Patterned material is fine as it will add texture and interest.

Cut the fabric into strips about 2 inches wide and 24 inches long. The number you cut will depend on the length of your garland. Then take a piece of natural twine as long as you want the garland to be. Leave a few centimeters at each end for fixing.

Now fold a strip in half and place it under the string so that there is a loop at the top edge. Then, thread the end of the fabric through the loop and pull so that it is attached to the string. Repeat this process until you have the desired garland length.

Rainbow corn garland

Source: COLOR PENCIL Magazine/Flickr

Winter holidays bring popcorn garlands, and now fall can bring rainbow corn garlands. This project involves a power tool, so caution is advised. You will need a drill with a very small piece of about 1/8 inch, needle nose pliers, a sewing needle and some strong thread.

Holding each kernel of colored dried corn with the tongs, carefully poke a hole in each one. Then, tie a good knot in one end of the thread and, using a needle, start threading the “core beads” now on it. Continue in this way until your garland is as long as you want.

Wreath of leaves from old books

Source: Modern Modern Mama | Angela K. Nickerson/YouTube

Use pages from old books to create a leaf garland. Remove the pages from the old book. Use either freehand or a template to draw leaf shapes. Then cut them out. The number of leaves you cut will depend on the length of your garland. You can use pastels or old tea bags to “age” the paper sheets if you want a more vintage look.

Then you can start stringing the leaves together or gluing them in bunches before tying them to a piece of natural twine.

Pine cone and Acron garland

Source: The Rustic Hen/YouTube

This garland requires going out into the forest and rummaging for pinecones and acorns. There is no strict way to tie them to the twine. Anyway, you can make them stay in place, that’s fine. You can try tying small pieces of twine to each cone and acorn, almost like a tree decoration, before threading them onto the main length of twine.

You can also use hot glue, as shown in the video above, but that would make it non-compostable. Alternatively, you can carefully drill small holes in the stems of each item and thread them onto the twine. Consider adding ribbons in autumnal colors and wooden beads for more frills and festivities!

Garland of dried orange slices

Source: Jan Howell/YouTube

First, you’re going to need a bunch of dried Orange Slices. These can be purchased from a craft store or easily made by following the tutorial in the video above.

Once you have your Dried Orange Slices, the possibilities are endless. As in the example above, you can chain your orange slices together so that you can see all the orange slices side by side. Alternatively, you can string the orange slices through the center so that the orange slices form a long cylindrical garland. The garland can be broken down by alternating between a slice of orange and then a bouquet of colorful fall leaves. You can tie the ends using a few cinnamon sticks.

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