Wednesday, January 23, 2013

use what you got homemade pumpkins

Good morning everyone! I hope you had a BEAUTIFUL weekend. We finished up our garage sale over this weekend so I didn't get much time to work on projects and when I did finally have time it started to rain. So by Sunday I need to do something creative but couldn't go out in the yard to work on projects. I decided that I wanted to make some of those cute pumpkins I keep seeing all over blogland. I have seen some cute velvet ones, but I didn't have any velvet. I saw was some cute yarn ones....but I didn't have any yarn....oh and I saw the cutest felt ones....yet again...I didn't have any...so I thought...what DID I have????...well remember those cute wreaths I made from a bolt of material or that old curtain I got at Goodwill...You can see those here and here. Well, I still had the material left, and they

matched my decor so I thought.....why not..

So I got out one of my chargers and used it to draw a circle shape around the back side of the material.



Then I cut the material out.


Then, since I only sew when I absolutely have to, I used my handy dandy hot glue gun to put a little hem around the edge.


When the glue was dry and cool I actually had to sew. Being the thrifty person that I am and using what I had in the house I thought this would be a great way to show how to USE WHAT YOU HAVE to make this project. I am the child of depression age parents. (meaning the GREAT DEPRESSION not sad parents..:) My Dad never threw anything out...much to the dismay of my Mother, and my mother was very crafty and I would always see her using something that was for meant for something else, in a useful way. You know kind of like how if you don't have a hammer, you use your shoe to pound in a nail, and if you don't have a screwdriver you use a butter knife to screw in a screw...LOL...:) Well I didn't have any good thread..(I said we are using what we have for this project) But what I did have was one of those nice extra wool thread packs that you get when you buy a sweater. (I told you I was thrifty.) I save these in my jewelry box all the time...I know I will never use them to fix a sweater, but I always need thread for something small and this was the perfect case.

So I grabbed the very nice wool thread and started to cinch the top of the circle for the pumpkin together.


Once I got about 3/4 around the top of the circle, I filled a zip lock bag with rice, to weight the bottom of the pumpkin. Now normally I would not use my organic brown rice for such a craft, but as you can see, I buy them in 10 pound bags so I had plenty to spare and I was using what I had. I put that in the bottom of the pumpkin and then used a bunch of plastic bags to fill the pumpkin and give it a nice round shape.
When it was done, I went out in the yard and found some twigs that would work perfect for my pumpkins. I used hot glue and stuck the stick down into the center of the pumpkin and then used the rest of the thread to sew the top shut.


Then to add a little embellishment to my pumpkin, I grabbed some of my nice jute rope that I had gotten at Goodwill and used on my wreaths. I wanted them to have a little curl to them so I took a pencil and slowly wrapped the rope around adding a small bead of hot glue to hold parts of it together.


When it was cool I tied them around the stem. I am so happy how they turned out and cost me nothing, since I had all of these items in my house and had used them for other projects. I hope you enjoyed this little craft and I hope you all have a BEAUTIFUL day.
 
http://www.homestoriesatoz.com/2011/09/tutorials-tips-link-party-29.html
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22 comments:

Carol, The Answer Is Chocolate said...

First, these turned out great. Second, I'm laughing because I just linked something up at Megan's that's a "use what you have" and next on my to do list is to use the rest to make some pumpkins. Great minds.

Marilyn said...

I love it.. wow.. so creative and fun.. : )) Hi there, I found ya via blog hop and had to stop in and say hello, LOVE all your creativity and space here.. Excited to get to share in more blog fun reads and inspiration from ya.. I'm officially following ya.. I'm Marilyn via http://theartsygirlconnection.blogspot.com/2011/09/its-officially-fall-crawl-day-1.html - hope you can stop in sometime.. TY

Seek First said...

Wow--so cute and easy! My favorite kind of craft!

I have a rosette necklace in a great giveaway right now, would love for you to enter and win! http://bouffeebambini.blogspot.com/2011/09/seek-first-rosette-necklace-giveaway.html

Lucydesignsart.com said...

do you ever stop? lol! too cute btw!

Penny said...

I love them! I am wanting to add some new fall decor to our house and I am thinking these would be perfect. Thank you so much for sharing!

Marilyn said...

WOW -- I LOVE THEM.. Hi there.. I absolutely LOVE your blog.. Found ya via linky party over at Trendy Tree House and officially following ya with smiles.. Great creativity here.. So indulged.. I'm Marilyn via http://theartsygirlconnection.blogspot.com/ and I'd love for you to stop in sometime. Have a great Wednesday. : ))

J's mom said...

I love these pumpkins, I will try to make them :)
http://diycraftstomake.blogspot.com/

Leigh Anne said...

Such a cute and clever idea! Especially like the jute!!

Unknown said...

This is beautiful! Way to be so thrifty! I'd love for you to join my brand new linky party! http://www.coffeeandtheirkisses.com/2011/10/stitch-n-niche-saturdays-linky-party-1.html

Anonymous said...

This is so creative and cute!! I love it!

Ann @ makethebestofthings said...

Very creative and well done. I'm going to craftlift your idea of hot gluing the jute in a curly spiral, it's a good one! I am in the process of doing exactly what you suggest, using what I have to make what I want. I just can't see spending $$$ for something I can make!

Karena said...

Great job girl!! I love them, you are very creative!

I have hooked up with Julia's Party as well!

xoxo
Karena

Art by Karena

The Tablescaper said...

Love your pumpkins. It would be great to have you link this post to my weekly meme Seasonal Sundays.

- The Tablescaper

Nickety Nackety Noo said...

These are fantastic! I am with you about using what you've got, I must see what I can come up with for some of these pumpkins!

The Tablescaper said...

Wonderful to have you be a part of Seasonal Sundays. Hope you'll be a part next Sunday too. the link opens at 7pm on Saturday night. I think you'll see more traffic if you link earlier. Hope so!

- The Tablescaper

Honey I'm Home Blog said...

This project is so pretty! Thanks so much for linking it to my party. It's my pleasure to feature this great project tonight in my Fab Friday Favorites. Please feel free to take an "I Was Featured" button if you'd like. And do come back again!

Warmly, Michelle

Anonymous said...

oh my gosh.. thats lovely!! thank you for linking in to Colours Dekor.. Cant wait to see more festive posts.. :-) Awesome!

Tips from the Heart said...

These are so great! What a neat way to use fabric. Thanks so much for linking up with my Follow me Fridays!
-Robyn from http://tipsfromtheheart.blogspot.com
ps I'm now following you GFC :)

Pam Hoffman said...

I'm so impressed how you solved every problem in this project with things YOU HAVE AROUND already!

Your post would be perfect for our "Share Your Halloween Tips & Tricks (or Treats!)" Linky Party on our 'conservation' themed blog.

While the blog is fairly new, it is getting good traffic already and ranking very well.

Would you like to stop by and add your link?

Thank you for your consideration!

Pam Hoffman
http://conservationofeggs.blogspot.com/2011/10/2nd-conservation-linky-share-your.html

Jeff Miller said...

Thank you for signing up at Conservation of Eggs for our Halloween tips Linky party.

At first I was a bit stuck on wasting food in the pumpkin but then I had a thought. If you make the pumpkin easy to open, you can use the pumpkin as a seasonal gift bag. You can then pack rice, beans or anything similar in airtight bags in there and fill the rest with other dry ingredients that the recipient can use to make a recipe.

Meagan At Fairly Fabulous said...

Awesome job! And I love that you used what you had. It's too easy to go buy new fabric, then have extra scraps....again. Thanks for the detailed tutorial, too!

Anonymous said...

These are so adorable! THanks for sharing at the Stache Party!