Show and Tell

I've pretty much finished the fall/Halloween decorating, but along the way, I did a little crafting too, and I thought I'd share my ideas and efforts with you--these really are super simple to make, so I hope they will spark a little creative interest in you too.

 Here's a little bling pumpkin for those of you who prefer your decorations to be a little bit elegant.  I came across the adhesive trim in the $1.50 bins at Michael's--it took a little over one roll to decorate a medium-sized pumpkin.  The trim comes with a peel off backing, so I just cut strips to length, and then I peeled and stuck each strip on the pumpkin.  I added a sparkly black ribbon to the stem end.

 My friend Imelda gets credit for this next idea.  Another friend of ours moved last year and asked Imelda if she wanted a small artificial Christmas tree she didn't want to pack across country; Imelda said yes, she would indeed like the tree.  A couple weeks ago, Imelda pulled out a can of matte black spray paint and sprayed her tree black.  And oftentimes, whatever Imelda does, I end up copying.  A trip to Michael's with a 50% off coupon netted me a small Christmas tree, and a rummage through the garage turned up a can of matte black spray paint.  After that, I picked up some of the scrap book type Halloween trims, also at Michael's and on clearance right now, and crafted up a few paper ornaments.  A bracelet of skulls and cross bones was deconstructed and restrung, and then the pieces were tied to the tree branches.  And I found a bat for a tree topper.

 

I've always wanted to try a gourd project, so when I made a trip out to a country farm stand for this year's pumpkins, I picked up a couple of gourds.  Let me tell you, gourds are NOT the quick and easy project that I mentioned at the beginning of this post because they take some soaking and scrubbing, but it's really not that terrible either.  I gave Imelda a gourd and the two of us got together one evening and did a little painting.  Have you ever tole painted?  I haven't but my friend has, so she helped me out with mine by showing me a couple paint techniques.  I still want to paint a second gourd to look like a pumpkin, but I thought I'd make a black cat for the first one--I found a picture of a similar gourd on the internet and the idea appealed to me.  We used painted wool for the ears.

 

Remember I told you about my sister-in-law's decorated pumpkins?  At that farm stand I visited, I picked up a couple pumpkins for friends and decorated them.  Imelda (yes, her again!) hostessed our recent stitchery gathering, so I decorated a pumpkin for her as a hostess gift.

I also made one for my other sister-in-law . . .

 

and my good friend Lisa to thank them both for all they did to help with the Wild Child's baby shower last month--I still need to post some photos from that party and tell you about it, but that's a post for another day.

Finally, I decorated a pumpkin for myself.  All of the pine cones that look like roses that I used in decorating were found on my lunch time walks.

If you'd like to decorate a pumpkin, scroll down a couple posts to the link to Mumzie's blog--there are instructions there about how to prepare the pumpkins and how to add the decorations.

Happy creating!