Plastic Pumpkins Go Glam

I realize that painting plastic pumpkins is not a new and exciting idea 

but this turned out pretty cute 

and took about 5 minutes so I thought I would share.

We had an event at church and I wanted some Fall-ish decor

 but I wanted something a little different and fun.

And very inexpensive.

I bought plastic pumpkins for a dollar. 

(I saw them at the thrift store today for a quarter 

so you could really create these for a bargain.)

 I used my favorite gold spray paint to change their look from plastic orange to classy gold. 
It is amazing what gold spray paint can do!

 Then I drilled a hole in the bottom the same size as a bamboo garden stake I already had. 
Make it a snug fit.
 I pushed the pumpkins on to the stake and used a little bit of black tape to wrap around the stake right under the pumpkin so it would not slide down. I used a 1/2 inch wide strip so it blends in with the bamboo markings. 

Then I went to Lowe's near the house and bought all the clearance mums they had!
I paid a dollar per mum so this was a pretty big look for not much money. 
Everyone kept talking about how fun they were and because they were so inexpensive we put them everywhere and then I sent them home with the volunteers at the end of the event!

Everyone had a big smile on their face!

...And Coming in at Number Three!!!!

The air has been clear and crisp in Atlanta the last few days.

A change from our humid, Summer days

 (which I love and I'm not ready for Summer to go)

but everyone else  is excited for Pumpkins Spice lattes and

 Pinterest is one big Pumpkinfest!!

This blog post about this stack of pumpkins from a few years ago

 is my third most popular post of all time!!

If this seems a bit too large or involved then

 you can always make these - a much smaller scale!

But if you are into bigger and better than I "mustache" you to make this guy!!

or you can keep it simple and squishy fun

and just make these with the kiddos!!

Linking up:
at Zevy Joy's Fall Inspiration!
and  White Spray Paint Blog!



Happy Halloween!! or Pin It For Next Year*!!

I went on a little road trip through ...

...land of cotton...

... snowy fields everywhere...

...then I crossed a beautiful bridge...

...and ended up in the land of salt marshes and pluff mud...

... and the next morning I crossed over the dunes...

... and there was the amazing beach and blue skies...

... then I wandered over to a beach of eerily beautiful, huge driftwood trees...
... but what I was truly supposed to be doing was
teaching at a conference on Jekyll Island, Georgia.
Lucky me.
Hands down the best place for a conference is the beach!!
I planned a little make and take for all the teachers 
who gave up their Saturday to come to a conference 
(even if it was at the beach!) 
and since it was the Saturday before Halloween 
I decided that we would make a variation  
of this super popular project/post, the snowman in a baggie, 
which has been viewed and pinned zillions of times.
So, gather up a baggie
 some red and yellow food coloring
 hair gel, hand sanitizer 
or mix up a batch of unflavored gelatin if you are worried about young children,
scraps of black peel and stick fun foam, plain black fun foam, white peel and stick fun foam and pumpkin seeds.
You can make this for pennies.

Using the black peel and stick fun foam, cut out eyes and a mouth. Stick on the outside of the baggie. Add teeth, if you want, cut from white peel and stick foam.
 ( They look like Chicklets gum to me!!)

Then squeeze some hair gel into the baggie and a drop or two of  red and yellow food coloring. Drop in a nose shape cut from foam that isn't sticky back.
This can be a lesson on color mixing and shapes!!!
Then just squish the baggie around until the hair gel is completely orange.
The object of this fun activity is to squish the nose shape that is inside the baggie into it's proper place in the pumpkin face. They can squish it around over and over again!! Great motor skill activity and it's relaxing as well.  
If you teach really young children you can put the activity together and then tape the baggie down to the play table and they can manipulate it on the flat surface - easier for little ones or in a special needs class.  Everyone loves this squishy project!!
And for added authenticity you can drop a few pumpkin seeds in the baggie and your pumpkin has seeds in the goopey inside just like the real deal!!

 

 

He'ssquishy, gooey fun!!
* I tried to post this sooner but I had some technical difficulties so you can pin it for next year and be ahead on Halloween activity planning !!!

From spooky to something sweet....

... this 75 % off paper mache spooky house is changing holidays.
No pumpkins, bats or ghosts for this house. Can you guess where I am going with this one??

 
This will be a bit of an expirement and I'll show you how it turns out - if it's cute :)
 
But before we move on from Halloween - does it make it things look spookier if it's in B/W mode ?? :)

 

The Great Pumpkin....

... with a 'stache!!!
This was the pumpkin I made for our "Trunk or Treat"* two weeks ago. He has been hanging out by my office door and one of the kiddos told me last week that he was "her dream pumpkin!"  :)

He'll only be around one more day and then I get to figure out where to store him until next year. I keep making huge decorations and then, reality.... where to put them??? :)

I'll worry about that on November 1st!!!!

Happy Halloween!!



* a  pic from Trunk or Treat. Everyone decorates their trunks or dresses up and the children go from trunk to trunk getting lots of goodies. It was so crazy and fun - about 450 showed up - that I didn't get many pictures!! ( this is my gig so I was busy, busy and not a good photographer!!)

College Girl came home for the event - she can't stand to miss this event. She's been at Trunk or Treat since she was little, then she started driving and decorated a trunk and now she comes back to hang out at my trunk. You can see the great big pumpkin behind them. A friend helped me make the photo booth mustaches so every child could have one!!! Kids of all ages wanted them. They were so much fun!!

Showtime!!!

One day down and one day to go !

Here is my little booth. I was worried about having enough stuff to fill it but it worked out. Most of my "art" is made from recycled and found items, scraps of paper, fabric and ribbon, etc. so I decided my display would be the same. I gathered up all my galvanized items from the house and porch and a galvanized ladder from the backyard. The "filler" around the base of the trees is shredded newspaper and the tags are paint strips - may I say that I have used paint strips for art and gift tags since before anyone even thought up Pinterest :)



This was first thing in the morning!

 

 By late afternoon all the pumpkin stakes except one lonely guy were gone along with the snowman and gingerbread ones !

 

I sold most of these long signs and took some orders, too.

 and people started to ask : Are you going home to paint some more tonight??

I decided to be wise and go out to dinner with a friend instead!

I was pooped - Craft Shows are fun but they are work!!!!

I'm off to the show... have a great day!


Linking up:



Things I do when I need to be painting...

I've been busy at work, busy at home, busy with College Girl (which was a ton of fun!), busy getting ready for the craft show, you know... busy like everyone else.

And I need to be painting but instead I have been...

arranging my spray paint in spectrum ( rainbow) order. That's how my scrapbook paper and recycled plastic lids are organized... for some it's alphabetical but for me, it's by color! Is that weird?

... and unloading pumpkins at the church. I love these "white" pumpkins.

 

 

... and I have been getting ready for the craft show. I made a ton of ornaments and canvases but time is short now and some of my ideas will have to be saved for another day,

I'll be sure to take some pictures at the craft show and let you know what creative and clever things were there!!

Pumpkins from Paint Can Lids...

Remember this post ?

Here are a few of the finished product ready for the soon-to-be-here craft show.

 You can poke them in the ground coming up your walkway or in a nice, big Fall mum. I have been painting like crazy so I  have not bought a single mum yet.
So I stuck it in my neglected, unpruned boxwood. Yep. And if you look carefully you can see all the dead leaves that need to be raked. :)

 

Linking Up:

"my Mummy said there'd be days like this..."

... so I took my scraps of white paper and got busy!!!
This one may take the cake for easy, peasy.

 

These are gingerbread man shapes cut from white paper and then skinny strips of scrap white paper to "wrap" the mummy. Two black dots for eyes peeking out and some Mod Podge. This can be done any size you wish - it all depends on the size of the gingerbread man to begin with. This is a great project for children because they can trace a cookie cutter and cut out the shape. Then just supply them with a pile of skinny strips and let them "measure" how long to cut them so that the mummy/gingerbread man shape is still obvious. This can keep your own children or a classroom full of children busy for quite some time. And then just glue it all together!!! These are small ornament/package toppers on scraps of wood but they could be done on canvases from Dick Blick - some day they will send me some canvases and say thanks for bragging on us :) - or just out of construction paper and use google eyes for a budget version!! Cute any way you go - my Mummy says!

** I've got to finish at least one thing in the daylight hours
 ( instead of the middle of the night!) 
so that the pictures will be decent!! Sorry for the quality!

The Lid is Off...

... of the paint can. What do you do with your old paint can lids???




I give mine a blast of orange spray paint, some polka dots, of course,
 a little spatter painting and...

...the beginnings of a spooky face!

 Stay tuned.... more pumpkin faces and paint can lids are headed your way.

PS. Be sure to go here to enter the GIVEAWAY!!!!!




Linking Up: