Easy Bling Pumpkins

Brighton Park Fave Craft: Bling Pumpkins

Every year I make a few of these easy bling pumpkins. They are super easy and can be made in about an hour with only a few materials. Even if you consider yourself "craft-challenged", you can make these! If you are often time-challenged, you will love how quickly these come together! These can also easily be modified for children to get in on the fun!

They are wonderful for fall decor; by themself on a mantle or in groups. This particular one played "double duty" last year as a centerpiece for my daughter's Cinderella Halloween Themed birthday party she had last year... (to see the rest of the party, click HERE)

VARIATIONS: I loved the look of the black and gold on white pumpkin (pictured) but here are some other Ideas:

Red/Black/White: "Twilight" Pumpkin

Purple/Orange/Green Bling  Whimsical Pumpkin

Maroon/Gold Bling Harry Potter Gryffindor Pumpkin

Black/Green Bling Harry Potter Slytherin Pumpkin

Place individual gems in circle patterns for polka dot pumpkin

Use border bling, cut in lines for a striped pumpkin

You will need:

• one artificial pumpkin in color of your choice (I like using white or black). They come already painted white and are available from Michaels or other craft stores pretty readily this time of year. The one pictured cost $5.00. Since they are not real they last year after year. If they don't have your preferred color, you can paint them with craft paint. Be sure and allow proper drying time if you do!
• Various packs of scrapbooking bling (scrollwork design or border). Sold in packs, usually in its own section. It already has adhesive and the scrollwork designs can be easily trimmed any way you want and down to any size.
• Various packs of scrapbook bling or pearls that are individual gems in colors of your choice.
• Scissors to trim bling as needed.
• Ribbon, feathers, witches hat or other embellishment for the top. (Harry Potter themed pumpkins look great with an owl, snitch or glasses on the top....Twilight pumpkins look great with a Crytal heart or flowers on the top). Feathers (or trim a feather boa for a fluffy ring of feathers looks great and then top that with a witches hat for some real va-va- va- voom)...endless possibilities!

(My pumpkin  pictured above took 3 packs of black scrollwork bling, 2 packs of gold scrollwork  bling, and two packs of pearl gems.)

Directions:

1. I wipe my pumpkin down with a soft dry cloth to make sure it is clean before I start.
2. Starting at the top, I carefully apply the scrollowork bling where I want, trimming it to size as I get to the bottom of the pumpkin.
3. Do big pieces of connected bling first and fill in with small individual pieces/gems second.
4. Embellish top (I used ribbon for the one pictured).

Project info:

TIME: one hour (approx). per pumpkin but they get faster as you go!
COST: one pictured cost $5 pumpkin, $25 scrollwork bling and $10 individual gem bling=$40.00 (using coupons for 50% off items at Michaels and gathering your bling before hand can make this project significantly cheaper).

**For a cheaper version but still very cute; attach multisize or same size buttons instead of the faux gems/rhinestones and pearls. Or decorate top half in spider web pattern instead of doing whole pumpkin...

NOTE: I once made a few of these using ONLY the scrapbook bling/embellishments I had left over from other projects, making the cost under $10 and helped clear our some odds and ends leftover supplies.

MODIFICATIONS FOR KIDS:

• give them a smaller sized pumpkin and your leftover bling from prior craft projects
• give them small plastic pumpkins and halloween themed stickers

Happy Crafting, Happy Fall!