The other day I came across this cute idea on Pinterest that I’d -re-pinned a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, the original website is no longer, so I can’t link you there. I thought “ooh, that’s super cute… for a party”. Because, how long do pumpkins last in a mid 70 degrees environment before they get ugly? Not long, my friends, not long at all.
I loved the idea. A whole awful lot. But I wanted something that would last longer than a few days before it started to wilt and smell funny. So, I decided to see what I could come up with. I am pretty happy with the end result. And I love that you can fill it with whatever you want!
Materials:
– Faux Pumpkin
– Orange Acrylic Paint
– Cinnamon Sticks
– Glue Sticks and Hot Glue Gun
– Potpourri or other fillers
Directions:
– Cut the pumpkin in half, horizontally.
– I painted the insides of my pumpkin with orange acrylic paint, as it was white styrofoam and distracting.
– I had originally intended to use skewers like in the original project, but plain skewers are not pretty. I wanted to dress it up. I decided to use cinnamon sticks with skewers inside for support. That so didn’t work. I then tried to use toothpicks. Still didn’t work. Hot glue worked the best. Sometimes, the easiest way is the best way…
– Use a hot glue gun and glue cinnamon sticks around the inside of the bottom of the pumpkin. Use as many sticks and place them as far or close together as you want. I opted for eight sticks. Let set for a few minutes until the glue is cooled enough to hold firm.
– Depending on the size of your fillers and the space between your cinnamon sticks, you may need to put the filler in now. I put my potpourri in now, but held the leaves out until I glued the top on.
– Put globs of hot glue on the tops of the cinnamon sticks and quickly put the top of the pumpkin in place. Move quickly so the glue doesn’t harden before you get everything in place. There were two cinnamon sticks I had to use hot glue and build them up so they would hit the top piece of the pumpkin. See photo below.
That’s it. It’s a pretty simple project and I love the little touch of Autumn it brings to our home. Plus, it makes our living room smell yummy. I found all of my supplies at the Dollar Tree, but I had the pumpkin and cinnamon sticks since last year… or maybe the year before. My name is Krista and I am a craft supply hoarder.
