Pumpkin DIY

Let me preface this with one line. I hate DIY craft projects. I don’t have the patience or time for them, I’d rather just buy a finished product from one of my crafty friends or it’s worth it to me to be overcharged at Rogers Gardens. Just don’t make me do it.

I don’t want to shop for the materials, I don’t want to follow directions, lol I don’t want to do any of it! IF I do craft, what I DO want is the finished product to look like it belongs in Martha Stewart Living.

Enter = these pumpkins.

The girls from our dinner club were hosted by Chris Barton and her lovely daughter Chloe in Laguna Beach last year to do a craft night. They all love crafting and are so good at it!! I was excited to spend time with them but less excited at the prospect of crafting. < Elle was also only 10 weeks old at the time so I’d be crafting -AND- babywearing lol >

Much to my amazement, Chris and Chloe proceeded to show me just how EASY and CUTE these pumpkins are to make.

You need ::

1. sheers / scissors
2. a variety of succulents
3. greens
4. a hot glue gun
5. pumpkins

I got EVERYTHING at Trader Joe’s = inexpensive. (Off 17th in Costa Mesa for locals)

I like the squashed looking pumpkins for this project. Makes for a prettier bed to lay the succulents in since the pumpkins are more flat and wide.

First, you want to fire up that glue gun ladies. Then, you want to clip off pieces from your greens to make a bed of fluff to cover the top of the pumpkin. The wilder the better. You want pieces coming off and kind of looking wild. At least, I do.

I lay my pieces down and make sure there is proper distribution of the base pieces all around. We originally used moss and this time I grabbed those sand dollar greens and ones that looked kind of like berries for texture.

Then, its as easy as this… start gluing. Make sure you can’t see the glue- trick is to kind of shove the gun into the midst of greens and then press down onto the pumpkin.

Once you’ve got your base glued down, you repeat the process, only with succulents. You clip them at their base (obviously they will die eventually but they last the Halloween/Thanksgiving season) and then lay them out before you glue. You want bigger and taller succulents in the middle and then others surrounding it with variation in dimension- some that hang, differences in colors, you have to kind of eyeball it.

Once they are placed, again. Just glue it down. Easy as that. Ha!

How glorious. The easiest cutest DIY – so festive and stylish. These make for a great hostess gifts too or a token of gratitude or accompanying a homemade pumpkin pie at a dinner party… you catch my drift.

I brought these two to Twilight Moon Ranch in Utah for our friend Jenny who let us stay this week. I’ll have to make more to litter our house and to give away accordingly! (Teacher gift…)

Alright! Get to crafting. Craft // wine night just got fun. 😛

Thank you Chris Barton and Chloe Towersey for getting me on the craft horse. X