Simple Pumpkin Craft

Okay, so I have been dying to do some holiday crafting and I finally made it happen tonight! The supplies I used are:

• unfinished wood pumpkins (mine are from Hobby Lobby)
• Waverly Antique Wax (or other stain/paint of your choice)
• paper napkins or tissue paper of your choice (the ones I used here are from Wal-Mart designed by Pioneer Woman)
• Elmer’s Glue Stick
• match, lighter or a craft knife
• a couple tumbling tower blocks (mine are from Dollar Tree)
• craft or wood glue (or you could use hot glue…I do not currently know where my glue gun is)

the pumpkins I used from Hobby Lobby

The first thing I did was paint one side of each of the pumpkins with the antique wax. It works like a stain and I just love the color. Make sure that you do the opposite sides of the pumpkins because later those sides will be facing each other and I think it looks best for the stems to face the same direction.

staining with the antique wax

While they sat to dry, I took a napkin and peeled the second layer off (if you have a napkin that is more than 2 ply, you will want to peel all the layers so that you just have the designed one for the project). I love the design on these Pioneer Woman napkins! The colors are gorgeous. After I finished peeling the second layer off, I cut what was left into squares big enough to cover the pumpkins.

peeling the napkin

After flipping the pumpkins over, I applied Elmer’s glue (the purple glue stick is great because you can be more certain of the coverage) all over and then placed a napkin square over it, smoothing it out the best I could. Then I roughly trimmed around the pumpkin so there was not as much overhang. This next part is optional! I chose to burn the excess off. This is not something I came up with myself; I saw another crafter do it on YouTube and was amazed by the results. It was kind of shocking how fast mine burned and I almost burned myself, so if you do not feel comfortable trying it you will not find me criticizing you at all. Obviously I had my hands full with this step and could not take pictures. I stood with my pumpkin over the sink and lit the napkin and it burned up to the edge all the way around! It has such a clean finish! The alternative is to allow the glue to dry then flip the pumpkin over napkin side down and trim the excess off using a craft knife.

applying the glue

after burning off the excess napkin

both finished pumpkins

Then I glued two tumbling tower blocks, which I had also lightly stained, between the two pumpkins so that the napkin covered sides were both facing out. It turned out soooo pretty and I am anxious for the glue to fully dry so I can display it on my tiered tray. I will probably be making a mini riser for it as the sides of my tiered tray are kind of high. Hmmm…I am seeing a future crafting post coming up!

gluing the tower blocks on

finished product side 1

finished product side 2

There is another pattern of napkin I plan to do tomorrow. It is a plaid pattern that I found at Dollar Tree before I found the Pioneer Woman design. Maybe I will come back and update the post with pictures of it.

These pumpkins are perfect for a tiered tray or really anywhere that you want to add a little pumpkin decoration for the fall season. It can be customized so easily – just use the napkin or tissue paper you like! You could also cover both sides of a single pumpkin, drill a hole at the top and make an ornament out of it using some twine. I considered putting it a the end of a beaded garland for my tiered tray, but I personally feel the pumpkin is too big for that. That does not mean that you would, so there is another idea! This could also be personalized to make name plates for a dinner party. The possibilities really do seem endless!

This was such a fun and quick craft! I hope you find this tutorial helpful. Have a great weekend!

Moved

Howdy…from a new city! Since my last post on September 8th we have closed the sale of our previous home and our new home and have been settling in at our new home for a month as of tomorrow. A month of unpacking and organizing and cleaning and so on. A month of missing our church and friends while searching for and making new ones. So much has happened so quickly!!

The Lord certainly blessed us in the sale of our previous home. It went so smoothly! We had a garage sale that was the most successful we have ever had (not that we have had many – who has the time?!) and we, eventually, got all of our belongings moved. That was more of an…adventure?…than I anticipated, but it was done and once we had keys to our new home, they all got moved in much more quickly.

Now, if only unpacking went faster! But we do have three young children and their care falls primarily on me as Mr. Beck is busy working to provide for our family. Honeybunch is now 16 months old and I think the move has been the hardest on her. Her whole world changed suddenly. She also seems to be an ant magnet; it seem every time she goes outside, she finds ants. Or they find her. She also contracted hand, foot and mouth shortly after we moved in. She never had a fever and I started oiling her up immediately with a blend I found online specifically for HFM, just in case. It helped tremendously as the sores never got really big and they never “oozed” as I was warned they might do. In fact, after a week of oiling her every time I changed her they had almost completely gone away and by the end of the 7-10 days that HFM tends to stick around the only spots left were those caused by ants. She’s also cut several more teeth. You read that right…several teeth!

Occasionally I stop trying to unpack and organize in order to decorate the house as fall is one of my favorite seasons of the year and I could not stand the thought of missing out the opportunity to decorate our new home for it. As we were preparing to move, I dismantled almost all the wreaths I had made because they were looking old and dingy. So, the first project I made was a new wreath for our massive front door. The surprising part for me was that I found the florals at Wal-Mart! I’ve never bought florals there as I always felt they looked…well, cheap…compared to those at Hobby Lobby or Michaels. But on one of my many trips there after moving in, I saw some gorgeous sunflowers and those became the “centerpiece” of the wreath. Since then I have worked on decorating the massive mantle (everything is massive here, lol) and today I actually switched out the curtain rods and curtains left by the previous owners in the living and dining spaces with my own rods and curtains. That transformation alone has brought me some joy and more of an “at home” feeling.

Our new CC community is so different from the one we left, but everyone has been friendly and welcoming. We actually had our first field trip with them this past week – to the planetarium! And, funny story, members of the community attend the two churches that we are considering for membership, so whichever church we choose we will have friends both at CC and church. How cool is that?!

We are also getting involved with the local Trail Life and AHG troops. That has felt a little slower since they do not meet weekly as we are used to. We are committed, though, and again, some of our CC community friends are also involved in the same troops. That overlap is so very nice!

We ended up putting some IKEA cabinets we had and the whiteboard in the dining space so we can have somewhat of a school space in the new house. It is not pretty, but I am pleased to have something set up. It is working out pretty well. Now I just have to put in some child safety locks to keep Honeybunch from strewing everything everywhere. She is at that age where she wants all the things all the time to be what she wants and we have to stack the dining chairs when we are not using them to keep her from using them for climbing onto the table. “No” seems to mean nothing to her…not for lack of my using the word.

Mr. Beck is helping my brother to build my dream farmhouse style bed with storage built in. I am so anxious for it to be done, but they have been held up by rain and their day jobs. I will be so very glad when our mattress is no longer on the floor.

There is so much more to tell, but it is getting late and I want to prep another post about a quick craft I did tonight. I pray that God blesses you in mighty ways. Good night!