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My partner walked in, looked at the mantel, and asked when exactly I had decided it was fall. It was the second week of September. The window was open. That was answer enough.
I print most of this stuff at home. The mantel gets the soft, illustrated things, little animals and flowers in amber and rust, and the front entryway gets the bolder pieces so people see something the second they walk in. Last year my big mistake lived right there by the door. I taped a paper banner across the entry frame and stepped back, and one whole side had sagged a good two inches lower than the other. The neighbor noticed before I did. She is kind about these things, but she noticed.
A handful of the files below are the exact ones I used on the mantel and by the door this year, and yes, some of the links are affiliate links, so if you grab one I might earn a small cut at no cost to you. Now let me show you what actually worked.
The Little Raccoon That Started My Mantel
This was the first thing I printed this year. A round-faced raccoon in a scarf, all amber and soft brown, and the second I saw the thumbnail I knew it was going on the mantel. I sized one up to about five inches tall, printed it on 110 lb cardstock, and propped it against a candle I already owned. It carried the whole left end of the shelf.
My partner, who claims not to care about any of this, moved it two inches to the right the next morning so it lined up with the clock. So he cares.
One nitpick. The raccoon comes on a transparent background, which is exactly what I wanted, but my tired inkjet laid down a faint gray box around him on the first pass anyway. Turned out to be a printer setting, not the file. Cleared it the second time. If yours does that, check the paper-type setting before you blame the artwork.
A Duckling For The Corner Nobody Looks At
Not every spot on the mantel needs a showstopper. The far right corner is the part nobody really looks at, and that is where the little duckling went. Small, round, holding a leaf, the kind of thing you only notice when you lean in to blow out the candle.
I printed three of them at different sizes and lined them up smallest to biggest, like they were waddling toward the clock. It got more comments than half the bigger pieces.
The nitpick here is scale. The duckling is drawn with a lot of fine detail in the down, and when I shrank it under two inches the feathers turned to mush on my inkjet. Keep it at three inches or larger and it stays crisp.
Stitched Sayings I Did Not Actually Stitch
Now, full honesty. This is an embroidery bundle, meant for a machine, and I do not own one. What I do own is a stubborn streak. The quotes in here are the warm, autumn-leaning kind, and I wanted one over the entryway where the crooked banner used to hang.
So I opened the design preview, printed a saying onto kraft-toned cardstock, and framed it instead. It is not embroidery and I will not pretend it is. But propped by the front door it did the job, and it hung straight this time, which after last year felt like a personal victory.
The nitpick is obvious and it is my fault, not the file’s. If you genuinely want the thread version you need the machine, and the bundle is sized for that. As a print-and-frame cheat the lettering held up fine, though a couple of the denser designs printed a touch heavy and I had to lighten the ink before they looked right.
A Birdhouse Scene By The Front Door
By the entryway I wanted one piece with a little story in it, and this birdhouse clipart had exactly that. Tiny house, a couple of birds, leaves drifting around it, all in the amber and rust I had committed to. I printed it large, almost the full sheet, and leaned it in a frame on the entry console where coats pile up.
The neighbor stopped on her way past and asked where I bought it. I told her I printed it that morning. She did not believe me until I showed her the cardstock still warm from the printer.
One nitpick. There is a lot going on in this scene, and on cheaper paper the background leaves bled into each other a little. On the heavier 110 lb stock everything stayed separate and clean, so this is one I would not cut corners on.
A Bundle Of Blooms For The Whole Shelf
This flower bundle is the one I reached for over and over. A whole set of autumn blooms in rust and dusty amber, which meant I could print a few, scatter them across the mantel, and have everything match without thinking. That is the lazy genius of a bundle.
I tucked small ones between the candles and used one big bloom to fill the gap behind the raccoon. My partner said it looked like the shelf had been planned. It had not. It just all came from the same set.
The nitpick is that the bundle is generous, almost too generous, and the preview crams everything together so it is hard to tell what you are getting until you open it. I ended up using maybe a third of the flowers. No complaint about having extras, but plan to scroll for a while to find the ones you want.
The Grass Tufts That Filled Every Awkward Gap
Nobody decorates a mantel and thinks, what I need here is grass. But the awkward little gaps between the bigger pieces needed something low and soft, and these grass tufts were it. Amber, wispy, the kind of filler that makes everything else look intentional.
I printed a row of them, cut them out along the top edge, and stood them up in front of the candle bases to hide the spots where nothing else fit. Cheap trick. Worked great.
The nitpick is the cutting. The grass has a lot of fine, thin blades along the top, and trimming around every single one by hand was a test of patience I nearly failed twice. If you have a cutting machine this is a two-minute job. By hand, pour a coffee first.
Boho Bits For The Entryway Console
The front entryway needed a slightly more grown-up corner than the rest, and this boho set delivered. Muted shapes, soft autumn tones, a little less storybook and a little more styled. I printed a few and propped them against the wall behind a bowl where keys go.
It is the part of the entry that guests actually stand in front of while they take off their shoes, so it earns the attention. The amber here leaned a touch warmer than my other prints, which I liked. Tied the whole entry together.
One nitpick. A couple of the boho elements use very pale, washed-out tones that nearly disappeared against my off-white cardstock. I switched those few to a kraft-toned sheet and they finally showed up. On bright white they read as almost blank.
One Gnome, Because Of Course
I told myself no gnomes this year. I lasted about a week. This one is too round and too smug not to print, a little autumn gnome with a pointed hat in the right shade of rust, and he ended up smack in the middle of the mantel where he could survey everything.
My partner named him. I will not repeat the name. He has opinions about the gnome now, which is more engagement than I expected from the gnome.
The nitpick is that the hat color printed slightly more orange than the preview showed, closer to pumpkin than the deep rust I wanted. Not wrong, just brighter. If you are matching a strict palette, do a test print before you commit a full sheet.
A Horse For The Mantel Centerpiece
This one surprised me. I almost scrolled past a horse, because what does a horse have to do with a fall mantel, but the illustration is soft and autumnal, draped in leaves and amber light, and once it was printed large and centered it became the anchor the whole shelf was missing.
I gave it the prime spot, dead center, slightly taller than everything around it. The raccoon and the gnome flank it now like a tiny court. The neighbor called it the centerpiece, and she was right.
The nitpick is size. This is one you want big to do it justice, and printed at full sheet a faint banding showed up in the lighter amber areas from my aging inkjet. A fresher cartridge fixed most of it. On a good printer this is the star of the mantel.
The Fancy Print That Closed Out The Entry
I saved the dressiest piece for last, right by the front door where it is the final thing a guest passes. This chinoiserie autumn clipart has that painted, slightly formal look, blooms and branches in rust and amber, and it lifts the whole entryway out of cute and into something a little more put together.
I printed it big, framed it properly in a real frame instead of leaning it, and hung it level. After the banner disaster I measured twice and used a small level. No sag this year. The neighbor approved.
The nitpick is that all that fine, painterly detail demands good paper. On thin stock the delicate branches looked flat and a bit muddy. On the heavy 110 lb sheet the detail came through and it actually looked like art, not a printout.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to make fall decorations with corn stalks?
Corn stalks are my favorite cheat for the front entryway because they do most of the work for you. Bundle three or four dried stalks together, tie them tight with twine about a third of the way down, and lean the bundle in the corner by the door or against a porch post. They flare out at the top on their own and instantly read as fall.
To tie it into a printed setup, I clip a small printed sign or one of the clipart pieces to the twine, or prop a framed print at the base of the bundle. The stalks bring the height and texture, the print brings the amber and rust color story, and together the entry corner looks finished without much effort.
Can I print these at home?
Yes, that is exactly how I use every one of them. I print on a tired home inkjet, and when it sulks I sneak over to the library printer. For anything going on the mantel or by the door I use 110 lb cardstock, since the heavier weight keeps the print flat instead of curling and the color sits richer on the page.
Regular copy paper works in a pinch, but it wilts and shows every bit of curl, so if you can grab a pack of cardstock it makes a real difference for the price.
What file formats do these designs come in?
Most of the clipart pieces here come as PNG files with a transparent background, which is what lets you drop them onto a card, resize them, or print them clean without a box around the image. The embroidery bundle is the exception, since it is built for a stitching machine and comes in machine formats.
If you only plan to print and frame, the PNG pieces are the easy ones to start with. Open, resize, print, done.
Do I need a Cricut or Silhouette to use these?
For the printable clipart, no. I cut all of mine out with scissors at the kitchen table, and the only one that tested my patience was the grass tufts with their thin little blades. A cutting machine speeds that up and saves your hands, but it is not required to use any of the printed pieces.
The embroidery bundle is the one real exception, since that needs an embroidery machine to stitch as intended. I cheated it by printing and framing instead, which works fine if you do not own the machine.
Before You Print
So that is the mantel and the front entryway, amber and rust top to bottom, almost all of it printed at the kitchen table on cardstock I keep meaning to restock. The banner hangs straight this year. The gnome has a name. The neighbor thinks I bought half of it.
If you only grab one thing, make it the heavy cardstock, because every piece above looks twice as good on the 110 lb stuff. Print one, prop it crooked, and see which corner of your house turns into fall first.