The Apple Rug

This rug was so much fun to make. It can be a great conversation piece at a backyard party, and an alternative to hiding that not so attractive hole or cracked cement that you didn't have time to fix before that backyard party. To do this, start with a large piece of plywood that will be your base. (Measure the size of the space you wish to cover and get the wood accordingly.) Begin by using spray glue to attach individual lemon leaves to the outside edges of the wood. Glue the leaf on the side with the stem to hide it. This will allow the point of the leaf to be our fringe border.

The inside can be decorated any way you wish; I chose to go with a mosaic theme. I got a bunch of green, yellow and red apples and began slicing them into four pieces, keeping the colors separate. Make sure you move the rug into the place you are going to want to keep it, since once you add the apples it gets very heavy. After I placed my rug in the right spot, I began laying the apple slices in an X formation, keeping the direction of the slices uniform. Then I went back and filled the four remaining triangles with different colors slices creating a fun mosaic pattern. You can cut your apple slices to be bigger or smaller depending on the size you need to fill. If you can't fill all the holes, it's okay. After you are completely done adding your apples, take a bag of sheet moss and pull small pieces out. Fill all the little spaces between the apples with the moss. This creates a uniform-finished look and, no one will ever know about that big hole or the cracked cement beneath it.