Halloween Pumpkin Centerpiece

Halloween is almost upon us and I have been so busy with all of my sewing projects that I almost forgot about my Craft Lightning Project!

I wanted to make something fun to dress up my plain old boring dinner table, so I decided on this Pumpkin Centerpiece made from a faux carvable pumpkin from the Dollar Store.

This cute project can be completed in 15 minutes or less if you are in a hurry!

When I started out...I took out a ton of my craft stuff just to get some inspiration and ideas...

You can see my MESS here...

I tried different combos to get an idea of what I wanted...like adding faux leaves,spanish moss and ribbon to the pumpkin, but after a lot of experimentation, I settled on ric-rac, lace and bead trim to give the pumpkin a bit of a Steampunk look.

Here is a quick photo collage view of the steps I took to make this project:

Here are the supplies/tools I used for this project:

List of Supplies/Tools used:

Faux Pumpkin, Carvable (from Dollar Store)
Old Candlestick (from Yardsale)
Craft Mat, Inkssentials, Ranger Ink
Black Braid Ric-Rac Trim, (Decorative Trim Brand sold at Hobby Lobby)
Orange & Black Ribbon, Polyester and Wire
Black and Gold Lace, 3-1/2" wide, (Unknown Brand, from craft stash)
Thread, White, 100% Polyester, Excell Brand
Sewing Needle
Scissors, Wescott Brand, Craft Scissors (from WalMart)
E6000 Glue
Ad Tech Glue Gun, 2-Temp, Cordless
Glue Sticks, Ad Tech, Multi-Temp
Beads, Gold, (small...exact size and brand unknown, from craft stash)

I am always happy to participate in the Craft Lightning Series of Quick Crafts hosted by Angie at The Country Chic Cottage and Carolina at 30 Minute Crafts!

Be sure to check out their blogs to see more fun, creative and super fast Halloween Ideas!

Thanks so much for stopping by and checking out my Halloween Centerpiece!

As always, I love hearing from you, so leave a comment if you'd like or come visit me on social media (see links in my blog sidebar).

Halloween Mummy Pumpkin

Once again, I am excited to be a part of a "Craft Lightning" event put together by Angie at The Country Chic Cottage and Carolina from Thirty Minute Crafts.

This one is a special "Super Spooky Edition" featuring Halloween projects in 15 minutes or less (minus drying time of course)!

My project is a super cute and easy Mummy Pumpkin, inspired by a flyer/brochure I picked up at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago.

I really had fun making this mummy pumpkin and my Granddaughter liked it so much she asked if she could have it and asked if we could make one for her teacher!
(Something we haven't done yet, but will be on the list for next week's activities)

The good thing about this craft is that you can find most of the items just laying around your house or in your craft stash to complete it!

I purchased the faux pumpkin at Hobby Lobby, but I've heard that the dollar store also has these pumpkins, so check that out for sure if you are on a budget!

To keep this craft under 15 minutes, you'll want to choose a fairly small pumpkin.
The one I chose was 17" around and 6-1/2" Tall (to the stem).

Of course you can use a bigger pumpkin, but covering it will take a little bit longer time wise.

You can use gauze wrap or cheesecloth to wrap the pumpkin, though gauze wrap would be faster as it is usually cut to a good width already and cheesecloth is not.

I used cheesecloth and cut it in strips and then I used Mod Podge to apply the cheesecloth and seal it.

There is nothing more fun than playing with mod podge!

For the eyes and lips I used some white, black and red felt I had in my craft stash.

I found the fake eyelashes at the  "99 cent only" store, but you can use pipe cleaners or even craft paper to make eyelashes if you want.

It's crafting...and anything goes here!

Just use your imagination and create away!

I used the Hobby Lobby brochure as inspiration, but tried to make the mummy pumpkin "my own" by adding my personal touches, like the purple netting with glitter dots!

The purple satin flower spray was something I had laying around and I can't even remember for sure where I got it, but I think it was on a present I received years ago.

I thought the touch of purple was fitting for Halloween and added a pop of color that was needed to make this pumpkin stand out!

Here is what I used to create this project:

Faux/Fake Pumpkin (small to medium size)
Cheesecloth
Mod Podge
Felt, Sparkle Black, White & Red
Fake Eyelashes
Nylon Netting, Light Purple
Flower or Bow Embellishment
Crayola Glitter Pens
Aleene's Tacky Glue
Stamp Pad, Purple
Straight Pins
Foam Paint Brush
Flat Bristle Brush
Pencil
White Marking Pencil
Black Sharpie Pen
Scissors

Thank-you to Angie from Country Chic Cottage and Carolina from 30 Minute Crafts for hosting another great Craft Lightning Series, I always enjoy being a part of it!

This project/post is linked to the following sites/link parties:

Dollar-Store Halloween Pumpkin Luminaries

Happy Halloween to all my crafty friends out there!

Just thought I'd post this cool and thrifty craft that me and my 4 year old Granddaughter "B" completed the other day for Halloween.

It's so easy, yet turns out looking so nice and only costs a few bucks to make!

I originally found this idea on a cool blog that I follow called "Mod Podge Rocks" and I "pinned" it to my Pinterest Board so I would be able to find it again later.

I was glad that I did, because when I decided to try and come up with a fun Halloween activity for my Granddaughter, this one immediately popped in my mind, as funds have been tight lately and I had remembered that this one was cheap to make!

I took a quick trip to the dollar store to get the glass votive holders, battery tea lights and Halloween napkins (Total: $4.00 w/o tax!).

I had the other supplies needed already on hand.

Here are the supplies we started with:

As you can see, my precious Granddaughter was very excited about getting started with our "Crafty" project.

She is such a sweetheart and brings me so much joy!
I really love that we can share crafting together!

I wanted to show a lot of pictures of her doing this with me, so that you all know that this is a craft that can be done with Children with a little supervision.

I was pretty impressed at how much of it little "B" was able to handle on her own and she was really in to it!

I am going to lightly skim over how we made these, but if you want a better, more complete tutorial check out The "Maiden D'Shade" blog post/tutorial here.

(The Mod Podge posting directed readers to the Maiden D'Shade tutorial also.)

We started out by cutting out the strips of orange tissue paper to cover the glass votive holders.

Then we mixed a little bit of water with some Mod Podge:

Next, we began gluing on the tissue paper strips with the Mod Podge:

This part was a bit tricky at first, because we tried "dipping" the pieces in the MP and placing them, but they tend to tear and come apart that way, so then we decided to just lightly glue them first with a brush...just enough to get them to lie down on the glass and then after they were all on there, we went over the entire thing lightly.

After the first coat of Mod Podge, we took them outside on the front porch to dry:

(NOTE: Don't try this if it is a windy day, because obviously dirt, sand and other foreign objects could stick to the wet Mod Podge and give your project an unwanted design addition!)

We were under a little bit of time constraint, because "B" was making hers for her Mommy for Halloween and we needed to get it done kind of fast.

Putting it outside in the sun definitely helped dry it enough to get us to the next step.

"B" wanted a cat on her pumpkin, so we got out the Cricut Stuff and she picked out one from the Seasonal "Pumpkin Carving" Cartridge.

If you don't have a Cricut or would just prefer to cut out designs for yourself, Better Homes & Gardens has some great Stencils for carving Pumpkins that can also be used for this project, you just have to size them down a bit on your computer before printing them out.

Click HERE for the link to the stencils.

Sweet "B" has done a lot of "Cricutting" with Grandma, so she can actually operate it with a little help from me.

She chose the cat with a circle around it and the Cricut Imagine Machine did the work for us!

B's favorite part is "scooping" the finished product off the mat!

I sometimes have to help her a little with this part, if the design is particularly intricate, as one slip of the hand and the design can easily be torn!

She is getting pretty good at it though...an old pro!

The next step was to attach the cut-out to the pumpkin/luminary.

By now the first coat of Mod Podge had dried enough to continue.

"B" brushed on the MP to the back side of the cat cut-out:

I helped her glue it on the votive holder, as it was tricky to get it to lay flat on the rounded edges:

I had to hold it in place for about a minute or two so that it wouldn't slide around when I coated it with the MP.

Also, I had to fold and tuck under a tiny bit on each side to make it fit to the round shape.

I probably could have cut it smaller and would not have had this problem, but like I noted earlier, we were under time constraint, so I just did what I could do to make it look alright.

After adhering the cat, we covered it with a layer of Mod Podge and let it dry:

I did my Pumpkin next and just tried to experiment with something different.

I decided to try and cut out a design from a Halloween Napkin.

These are the napkins that I got at the dollar store:

I cut out the ghost with the word "Boo" on it:

Then I attached it to the pumpkin with a little bit of MP:

A bit of a warning here...go VERY easy on the Mod Podge with napkins, I was forgetting that they are a bit more delicate than tissue paper and I over-did it and made a crinkly mess out of my ghost!

Also, I put the second coat of MP on too early, before it was dry and it made the face part of the ghost too transparent, which I guess would have been fine for a ghost, if the bottom half had matched!

I didn't realize this until it had dried completely the second time, so there wasn't much I could do to fix it at that point, but at least I learned something from my experiment!

After the luminaries were completely dry, we added one LED Tealight Candle to each.

The tealights we used were purchased in a pack of three from the dollar store:

Here are the luminaries lighted:

I have to say, my Granddaughter's turned out much better than mine and I am so proud of her!

She is pretty excited about her gift for Mommy!

We had so much fun making these and I can't wait to make some more next year, or perhaps make some for Christmas!

Thank-you all for joining me and sharing in my fun craft time with my precious Granddaughter!

This Post/Project is linked-up to the following sites:

Grandchildren Autumn Layouts

I am still working on my most recent project and have not finished so I can't post about it yet, but i thought I'd post some layouts I did in November last year while at a crop with my friend Melissa.

Hubby and I had just taken two of our Grandchildren to the local Pumpkin Farm/Patch (Bishop's Pumpkin Farm, Wheatland, California) as we try to do every year.

I just love that time of year...all the beautiful colors of Autumn are my favorite and the weather here is usually fairly mild.

Here are the layouts I made:

Fun at the Pumpkin Patch!

My Precious Pumpkins!

Autumn Fun with Poppy & Gigi!

Since I did these months ago, I can't remember all the specifics of the materials I used, but I know that I used the following Cricut Cartridges for the Lettering:

Ashlyn's Alphabet (Top Layout)
Old West (Bottom Layout)

The 12x12 paper was purchased at Green Tangerine's where we were at the crop.
It is an awesome scrapbooking store in Rocklin, California with all kinds of neat goodies and two HUGE scrapbooking rooms for crops.

I have not added any journaling to these yet, as journaling is always hard for me for some reason...I just never know where to put it and I feel like I don't write my feelings down well, like that it would sound corny or not proper.

I have to get over that and just let my creative thoughts and emotions flow!

I guess for me...the photos are the big part.
I've always been a big fan of photos and have been carrying a camera with me since about the 6th grade!
I know the emotions I feel when I look at the photos, I just have a hard time writing it down for some reason.

Maybe some of you out there in scrapbook land can help me with this...what do you do to help move your thoughts along while journaling?

Thanks for looking and if you like what you see...will you please follow me?

This post/project is linked-up to the following sites: