A little more Fall (and how to antique white paper)

 I realize that Thanksgiving is just around the corner, but we are still working on some last minute Fall Decor over at our house.  I have so many things pinned that I really wanted to make for Fall....I should be moving onto Christmas, but the procrastinator in me just wont let me!!!  I made THIS garland that I found on PINTEREST.  There are TONS of Free Printable garlands out there, so it was a hard choice for me!!!

 I DID have to go all MacGyver on this project to get it to turn out how I wanted, but the end result was JUST how I wanted it to look.  In case you are cheap like me, here is what I did (and why).  I ONLY have white plain printer paper.  No pretty cardstock or colors...just thin white yuckiness.  BUT I wanted this to last AND I wanted it antiquey looking....so I jimmy-rigged it. 
FIRST...I printed on the plain white paper. 
Next, I glued the white paper to black cardstock so that it would be more sturdy.
Third (and here is where it might get weird for you) I rubbed a wet tea bag onto the paper to make it brown.   As you can tell I REALLY wanted brown paper.  It worked great by the way.  The trick was to not get the bag tooooo wet, but not let it dry out.  If it was tooooo wet, it soaked the paper and the color didn't stick well.  If it was too dry, the bag ripped spilling yucky tea all over. 
Finally I cut out the letter (leaving a bit of a white border) and then set them under a heavy book to dry.  THEN I strung them up with twine.  BTW... I cut slits for my rope with an exacto knife.  IF you do that...make sure you knife is SUPER sharp.  If it is sharp, it cuts a pretty slit through paper and cardstock.  If it is NOT sharp....it cuts an ugly hole and pulls  the white paper in a jagged ugly mess.  FYI:)

 And if you are lazy like me, you will hang your garland up by placing ONE end of the string under a stack of books and the other under a vase.  AND THEN leave the long end of twine hanging down tackily to the side.  NOTE TO SELF...that stupid twine still has not been cut.  GRRRR for forgetting to do that before I took pictures:)

ON a seperate note, I found YET another FREE way to hang a FREE PRINTABLE.  I have this quote hanging in my kitchen (thanks Amy).  I decided it had just the right colors for a FREE PRINTABLE that I liked, SO I used some handy dandy tape and hooked it right to the board. 

SERIOUSLY...you cannot get much FREE-ER than TOTALLY free right??? 

I have had sooo much fun on my THRIFTY PANTS Fall decorations, I may just try to keep the thrify ball rolling for Christmas. 

PLUS I need to give a big THANKS to Pinterest...how did I ever get any ideas before????