diy Autumn Pumpkins

This is my first craft post ever and I am so stoked! I didn’t take pictures of most of the steps… oops! I will try better next time ;) I will include detailed instructions and decorating inspiration in this post. The best part is that I made this using dollar store supplies.

Supplies

Collect the following materials:

• Colorful fall leaves

• A stick, or sticks to use as stems

We enjoyed going on a hike and picking up beautiful leaves along the way. Once you get the leaves home, press them between books, or two baking sheets so they dry flat. Dry for 4-6 days. Don’t dry them for too long or they will be too brittle to glue.

We love the real leaves because they remind us of the beautiful canyon we love spending time in. If you are worried about picking up real leaves, artificial ones should work as well. I will post an update next year and let you know if they stay well preserved. I do worry that they might be a bit brittle and end up cracking, but we will see!

Purchase from the Dollar Store:

• Artificial leaves if you don’t want to use real ones.

• 1 pkg Artificial moss

• 1 Spool burlap ribbon (I bought a spool that had lace pre-sewn to it)

• 3 Orange foam pumpkins

Purchase from Walmart:

• 2 Small foam pumpkins (I chose one with an orange speckled finish, and one with a white speckled finish)

• Brown acrylic paint

Other Supplies

• Paintbrush

• Hot glue gun

• Popsicle craft sticks (1 or 2)

• Scissors

• Knife

Prep

1. Remove the stem from the orange foam pumpkins, throw away. Remove stems from the small pumpkins, save for later.

2. Paint two of the large orange pumpkins brown. Let dry.

3. Plug in hot glue gun. While leaves are drying, you can start decorating the burlap finish pumpkins.

Burlap Finish Pumpkins

I used the remaining orange pumpkin from the dollar store and a white speckled finish pumpkin from Walmart.

1. Start by holding one end of the ribbon on the bottom of the pumpkin. Wrap it straight across the pumpkin. Wrap it around to the bottom of the opposite side. Cut the ribbon at this length.

2. Glue the center of the ribbon in the center of the pumpkin (where we will put the stem eventually). I use a popsicle stick to hold the ribbon in place while it dries. This helps avoid burns from the hot glue.

3. Pull the ribbon to the bottom on one side of the pumpkin. Glue the center ⅓ of the width down. Pull the other sides of the ribbon tight. You will need to glue a crease in the ribbon in order for it to lay flat and clean from the side view.

4. Repeat steps 1-3. Lay the second strip of ribbon right next to the first one. Let the edges overlap a little bit.

5. I used 5 strips of ribbon for the large pumpkin, and 3 for the small one. I only needed one spool of ribbon for both pumpkins, but I was pretty close to being short a few inches. Buying a second spool might not be a bad idea

Leaf Finish Pumpkins

1. Start by cutting the stems off of leaves with scissors.

2. Glue leaves at the top of one of the brown painted pumpkins. Put glue on the backside of the leaf and press it down with a popsicle on the pumpkin. Go around the edges of the leaf and glue the small points down so it is more secure.

3. Clean up hot glue strings as you are gluing to save you from the mess later. It’s also easier to clean up while it’s warm and will prevent damaging the leaves.

4. Place the second leaf close to the first so there are few gaps between the leaves. It’s ok for leaves to overlap.

5. Continue gluing leaves down until the whole pumpkin is covered. Don’t worry about putting leaves on the bottom.

You will see that mine have a few gaps between leaves, but the brown paint helps the gaps to be less noticeable. I didn’t paint my small pumpkin because I thought the red/orange speckled pattern blended in really well with the leaves.

Moss Finish Pumpkins

1. Start with your remaining brown painted dollar store pumpkin. Pull a clump of moss from the bundle and spread it apart. You don’t want to spread it too thin or it won’t conceal the paint well enough. If it’s too thick it will fall apart and make a mess in the area you are decorating.

2. Put some hot glue on the pumpkin and use a popsicle stick to hold the moss in place while it dries. Add more glue around the sides of the clump so it is secure.

3. Repeat this process until you have covered the pumpkin. Again, don’t worry about covering the bottom of the pumpkin.

4. There should be pieces of moss sticking out to give this pumpkin a lot of texture. Give the pumpkin a good shake so the excess small pieces of moss will fall off.

Finishing your Pumpkins

1. For the small pumpkins, use a knife to cut a small slit at the top of the pumpkin where you would like the stem to go.

2. Put hot glue on the bottom end of the original stem we saved, and slide it back into the slit.

3. For the large pumpkins, start but cutting the stick (or sticks) you collected to the appropriate length. I cut mine to about 2” in length using a hand saw.

4. Place the stem on the top of the pumpkin where you would like it to go and hold it in place.

5. Cut the pumpkin around the stem so that the piece of wood can slide into the hole. These pumpkins are hollow, so you won’t have much to cut through. I found that the burlap one was the hardest to cut through, but easier to cut with a knife rather than scissors. Glue down the top layer of burlap so it is securely in place.

6. Push the stem into the pumpkin to your desired height. Pull the stem out and put hot glue on the stem where you want it to sit in the pumpkin. Push it into the pumpkin and let dry.

Decorating Inspiration

I hope you enjoy this craft project! Please post pictures and tag me in them when you finish making your pumpkins. @my_journey.blog Here are some pictures of my pumpkins in my home for inspiration :)