Make It Monday – Fall Pumpkins

It is officially fall here in the Chicago-land.  Well, maybe we skipped fall and went straight to winter.  This week it was 85 one day at 40 the next.  I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised though, the changing of the seasons typically brings on air conditioning one day and the heater the next.

How do you decorate this time of year?  Do you go only Halloween, only fall or do you mix?  I mix.  Sometimes it looks a little goofy but I don’t want to have to change decor so often.  After Halloween I can just remove the Halloween items and maybe shift a couple of things and it’s good until Thanksgiving.

Here is an example of how I mix in my foyer, cobwebs and boo with Indian corn and a fall wrap down the railings.

 

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Earlier this year a group of friends started getting together once a month for a craft night.  We rotate who’s hosting and the host picks a craft.  It’s such a fun night out!  For October the host picked wood slices and the foam craft pumpkins.

There are a couple of different types of wood slices.  The ones with the thick bark are skinnier and often times not flat so they won’t stand up on their own.  The birch ones are thicker and more even and typically able to stand on their own.

Supplies for the wood slice project:
1.  Wood slice(s) in any amount and size
2.  Paint – can be acrylic or chalk
3.  Paint brush
4.  Vinyl if you want a saying on it
5.  Ribbon, raffia, twine
6.  Wood blocks or stick for stem
7.  Glue gun
8.  Scissors

I wanted mine to stand so I opted for the birch wood slice.  You can also likely find these at your local craft store.  Everyone else selected the thick bark kind and I thought theirs painted nicer.  It looked more like a flat paint and just needed 1 coat of paint for the most part.  I needed to cover my wood slice with 3 coats of paint and it looks more glossy.  Keep that in mind as you select which type of wood slice you would like for your project.

You also need paint.  Some of my friends used orange acrylic paint, which is what I did.  Some used black chalk paint to use it as a message board.

 

 

 

 

I actually did mine with printable vinyl.  I use a Cricut and the Cricut has limitations on the size of a print-to-cut project.  The size of my wood slice was perfect for the print-to-cut.  This saved me a little time in slicing and customizing the image I used in Design Space.

If you’ve never heard of lovesvg.com you need to go there now.   They have a ton of awesome free svg images.  They do have a commercial use option for them too if you plan on selling your projects.   This is the ‘thankful and blessed’ file I used for my project.

If you look on Pinterest for the wood slice pumpkins you will find options for a stem that were small, thin wood blocks.  This is a cute option and what a lot of the others did on theirs for craft night.  The birch wood slice is thicker so I went to our wood pile and searched for just the right stick.  I had my husband drill a hole and then I used wood glue to glue it in.

You can use any ribbon, raffia or twine that you’d like to add a bow.  My original plan was to use ribbon and raffia but I didn’t like the way the ribbon looked, it was just too much.  Instead I used the raffia and the wired wrapped vine.

To curl the vine just wrap it around a pencil and slide it off.

A few weeks ago Michael’s had a special on the fall foam pumpkins so I picked up a bunch.  I didn’t know what I was going to do with them though!  I’d seen the last name sliced through the large first letter and I really like them but we have enough with our name.  Last year I did a teal pumpkin that says Trick or Treat that I put out on Halloween so I didn’t want another pumpkin that said Trick or Treat.

To make the foam craft pumpkins here is what you need:

1. Pumpkin(s)
2. Vinyl (oracle 631)
3. Transfer tape
4. Machine to cut vinyl
5. Ribbon or flowers if you want to top any of them
6. Glue gun for any toppers

My saying came from lovesvg.com.  I didn’t want a picture of a pumpkin on a pumpkin though so I had to do some slicing and rearranging in Cricut Design Space.

I’ve never seen this type of craft pumpkin on Amazon so you will need to visit your local craft store and hurry because they don’t last long.  You can see all of the different sizes and shapes that the craft pumpkins come in.

All you do is measure your pumpkin and create your design or saying and then cut it out.  One tip is that designs that have thick letters, pictures or words are difficult because of the rounded and uneven surface.  The design I selected is intricate but actually went on much easier than a simple letter monogram.   The smaller or thinner lettering is more forgiving on this type of surface.

Once it’s cut out and you have it weeded you put on your transfer tape.  I find it easiest to start pressing in the middle and then lay and press from the middle out to the edges.  That way you know you have it centered and can manipulate the design to align correctly.

For the top flowers I just snipped a 3 stems off of a fall bouquet and hot glued them to the pumpkin.

The hardest part with the craft pumpkins is picking your design!  It’s pretty quick to cut and adhere the design once you know what you want to do.

That wraps up my Make it Monday tutorial!  Happy crafting!