Whimsical Faux Fruit Valance

 

Well, the garage sales were disappointing this weekend, I didn’t assemble a pile of fabulous potential makeovers. That got me digging in my supply drawers and one was stuffed to the brim with faux fruit, lemons, lime and orange slices.  Immediately I decided to make a faux fruit valance using them all up!

I have made many valances using faux fruit as an accent in my LittleLaLaOriginals shop in Etsy:

These are the supplies you need to make your own whimsical valance:

Faux fruit, small screw eyes, wood beads, 20 gauge colored wire, wire cutters, needle nose pliers, an awl, hot glue gun.

I am an affiliate with Amazon (that means if you click and purchase I get a few $$ and there is no extra charge to you) and I was happy to discover they have a good selection of faux fruit nowadays!  I had to really scour the internet the last time I bought some.

Step #1. After you assemble the fruit, decide on a pattern for your valance. I made some strands of lemon and lime slices, whole lemons, orange slices and lime slices and had some leftover wind chime pieces for the center focal point.

Step #2.  Poke a hole in the top and bottom of each piece with an awl.  NOTE: you won’t need to poke a hole in all the BOTTOM of the end pieces, only the ones who have something attached to their bottom. 

Step #3 & #4. Faux SLICES> Place an eye screw at the top and bottom of most of the pieces.  (Some end pieces don’t need an eye screw at the bottom.)  Then paint the eye screw a pretty color.  I use fast dry fingernail polish because it has an applicator brush, covers well, and dries fast (I am impatient!)

Faux LEMONS> remove the end stem which will leave a little hole.  Squirt hot glue in the hole and quickly insert an eye screw holding it until the hot glue has cooled.  Firmly holding the faux lemon, poke a hole in the bottom and repeat with a squirt of hot glue and hold until the eye screw is set in the hot glue.  (REMEMBER not all bottom of the fruit pieces need an eye screw)

Step #5.  Cut lengths of 20 gauge wire.  (I cut my lengths 3″ and 4″).  Start by making a loop at one end with a needle nose plier and use a small wood bead to start the “bead strand”.  After the wire is full of beads with 1/2″ left, curl the end into a loop with the pliers.

Step #6.  Assembling your “strands”.  To assemble, open each loop of the wire ends and close again after you add the faux fruit to it.

This strand uses three lemons utilizing 5 eye screws and two bead strands.

This valance is truly OOAK and is a real showstopper.  I am listing a slightly larger version of this valance in my Etsy Shop this week.

I guess it is a good thing the garage sales let me down, now I have a cluttered drawer empty.  HMMMM what can I put in it?