I’ve been working, with a group of other bloggers, on a fun holiday crafting campaign with JoAnn.  When I received the theme for this month’s project – #turkeytablescapes –  I knew exactly what I wanted to do, but I was a little nervous about whether it would come out the way I wanted or not.  I am pretty pleased with how it came out, though.  My Leafy Turkey combines natural (well, artificial “natural”) components of autumn.  And it’s pretty easy to make.

To see what other bloggers have made, and find other seasonal projects, check out the JoAnn Celebrate the Season website.

Make Your Own (Getting Started)

You’ll need:

• a smallish styrofoam pumpkin
• fabric oak leaves*
• fabric maple leaves*
• fabric lantern flower garland
• hot glue gun & glue
• toothpicks

*For this particular project, I ordered my materials online through the JoAnn website.  (Needed a small item – for another project – that’s not available in my local store, and I hate to order only one little thing if I’m having it shipped!)  So I couldn’t find just little baggies of silk leaves.  They do have these in the store, though, as it turns out.  So you could definitely use just plain leaves and not the garland, in whatever combination you prefer.  You do need the lantern flower garland for this project, though; I used a bit of the vine.

Step 1: Prep Your Leaves

If you’re using the garland, pull off some leaves.  Clip the stems.  (I left the stems on mine because I wasn’t sure if I was going to want them off, but I did end up clipping them and it’s a lot easier to just do it at this stage.)  Arrange them so you have a rough arch or “wave” shape.  That is – tallest leaves in the middle, smallest at the ends. I used around a dozen leaves.

Now pull out your glue gun and hot-glue a toothpick to the back of each leaf, right along the spine.  About half of the toothpick should extend beyond the bottom of the leaf.  I just flipped my leaves over in place within the row so I did forget which ones I wanted where.  (Hold the toothpick firmly in place until the glue is pretty well set.)

They’ll look something like this when you’re done:

Step 2: Create the Turkey’s Tail

This part is pretty easy.  Stick the toothpicks into the pumpkin.  Really – that’s it.  I started from the middle and moved outward, so I could be sure to get them distributed fairly evenly.  Do note that the leaves overlap.

I like the shape of this particular pumpkin, as it helps contribute to the raised and rounded shape of the tail, as well.

Step 3: Construct a Head & Neck

I didn’t get any good pictures of this part of the process, as both hands were occupied.  It’s not at all complicated, but it’s a little bit fiddly.

Cut about 2-1/2 – 3 inches off the end of the lantern flower garland.  (Whatever looks right to you.  Start a little longer than you think, because you can trim it if you need to.) Pull out the plastic piece (if you’re looking at it, you’ll know what I’m talking about – it’s a clearish white plastic rope that runs through the center and has loops on the ends for hanging the garland) and discard it.

What you have left will be getting a bit un-twisty at the ends; we’re going to use this to our advantage.

Stick a toothpick in one end, with about half extending out, and then you can use the wire that’s in the garland itself, to twist it a little more tightly again.  This is hard to describe, but…you just need to manually twist the end a little tighter again so they don’t “sprawl” so much.

With your fingers, bend the other end (that doesn’t have the toothpick) into a bit of a curve.  Pluck one of the largest lantern flowers, stick it’s stem into the inside of this curved end of the garland bit, and twist it tighter like you did the first end.

(It sounds like a lot to do when it’s all written out like this, but it’s not when you’re just doing it.)

Put a spot of hot glue on the front of the pumpkin, and stick the toothpick down through the middle.  You’re using the toothpick to anchor the neck, but hot-gluing it at the same time, which helps to control all of those frayed bits at the end.

And there you have it: a lovely, leafy Thanksgiving turkey.

Check out the JoAnn Holiday Catalog to find the best deals, and when you buy your supplies (for this or any other project), be sure to use this coupon!