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Making it in the Mountains

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Pick Your Pumpkin Challenge :: {Shabby-Chic Rustic Pumpkins}

Fall

Good morning!

My two week long {All Things Fall} adventure continues today and boy have I got a treat for you!!! Prepare yourselves for an absolute TON of pumpkin inspiration!

You may remember this Great Crate Challenge, when I teamed up with nine other talented bloggers to bring you ten amazing ways to transform a simple wood crate from Michaels. Well folks, we’ve done it again! Today I’ve teamed up with even more fab bloggy friends to show you how you can transform this simple craft pumpkin from Michaels in a ton of different ways!
 
 
Pick Your Pumpkin Challenge :: making it in the mountains
 

 
Going along with my {All Things Fall} theme of neutral colours and a rustic look, I created these shabby-chic pumpkins and I’m absolutely in LOVE!
 
 
Pick Your Pumpkin Challenge :: making it in the mountains
 
 
So here’s what we all started with: these simple craft pumpkins from Michaels. You can choose from 3 different sizes and 3 different colours plus, they’re on sale all week for 50%off!!!

Pick Your Pumpkin Challenge :: making it in the mountains
 
I couldn’t make up my mind about which size would work best for me, so naturally I bought all 3! Since I scored them all for 50% off too, I figured I couldn’t go wrong. Plus, bringing home more pumpkins meant I’d have a chance to try more than one idea!

I knew even before this pumpkin project came about that I wanted to try making a pumpkin covered in felt flowers. Ever since seeing this beautiful one by Amy at Delineate Your Dwelling, I knew I needed a lovely felt pumpkin in my life too!

So, I started making my own felt flowers by cutting circles of felt into spirals. Wonky, imperfect, little spirals. I experimented by varying the size of circle I stared with and the width of the spirals I was cutting, which gave me a ton of variation to my flowers. Just what I was looking for! With my trusty hot glue gun by my side, I began winding up my spirals beginning from the outside and working my way in, which left me with a perfect little centre circle (or oval) to glue everything down to. With a strip of hot glue across the middle, these pretty little flowers were good to go.

Pick Your Pumpkin Challenge :: making it in the mountains
 
It took an absolute ton of these little felt flowers to cover my pumpkin and as my bucket was filling up, I was glad I had decided to only take on the small pumpkin with them.

Pick Your Pumpkin Challenge :: making it in the mountains
 
A zillion flowers later and it was time to start attaching them to my pumpkin. Another easy-peasy job for the ever handy hot glue gun. With a little dot of glue on the back of each flower, I just started sticking them on from the top down making sure to squish them together a bit so there wouldn’t be any pumpkin showing through.

Pick Your Pumpkin Challenge :: making it in the mountains
 
As I was making these zillion little felt flowers, the wheels were turning for my next pretty pumpkin. I knew that if I was going to tackle a bigger pumpkin, I was going to need some bigger flowers … (cue the light bulb!) big burlap flowers instantly popped into my head!

I started with strips of burlap about 2 inches wide cut to various lengths (longer strips made larger flowers). I folded the burlap into thirds and started rolling the folded strip up. Once my roll was about 4 layers or so thick, I simply started twisting the burlap as I continued to wrap it around the centre until my flower was the size I was looking for. Then I glued down the end with my hot glue gun and attached an extra square of burlap to the back to hold everything together.

Pick Your Pumpkin Challenge :: making it in the mountains
 
Again, I wanted a bit of a shabby, random look to this, so I used 3 different kinds of burlap cut to different sizes. I randomly glued each flower on starting from the top and working my way down.

Pick Your Pumpkin Challenge :: making it in the mountains
 
After making copious amounts of flowers to fill two of my pumpkins, I decided I needed to try something entirely different for the third. I pictured covering a pumpkin with pages from a book, but just couldn’t bring myself to destroy a perfectly good one (where’s a broken old book when you need it?!), so I decided to use some scrapbook paper that came close enough instead.

Pick Your Pumpkin Challenge :: making it in the mountains
 
I cut the paper into strips to make it easier to work with. Working in sections, I painted some Mod Podge onto my pumpkin and laid my strip on top.

Pick Your Pumpkin Challenge :: making it in the mountains
 
Once I was done about half of my pumpkin, I painted another layer of Mod Podge on top of the paper and smoothed it all down with my fingers. I’m not going to lie, this part was pretty messy, but it was the easiest way to get it all nice and smooth. After letting that half dry for a few hours, I did the same to the other side.

FINALLY, FINALLY, FINALLY … I was left with three perfectly rustic pumpkins!

Pick Your Pumpkin Challenge :: making it in the mountains

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Pick Your Pumpkin Challenge :: making it in the mountains

Pick Your Pumpkin Challenge :: making it in the mountains

Pick Your Pumpkin Challenge :: making it in the mountains

Pick Your Pumpkin Challenge :: making it in the mountains
 
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the way they’ve brightened up my entry way and they go so perfectly with my new Burlap & Lace Fall Garland, don’t you think?

Pick Your Pumpkin Challenge :: making it in the mountains
 
To follow along with two whole weeks of {All Things Fall}, subscribe to receive my posts right to your inbox!

Now, I know you don’t want to miss what the other ladies have been up to, so click through the links below to check out each fabulous project! I’m absolutely loving these challenges! It’s really SO much fun to see how the very same item can be transformed in SO many fabulous ways!!! Stay tuned for more challenge fun in the weeks to come!!!
 
[inlinkz_linkup id=454340 mode=1]
 
You can find me sharing here, Savvy Southern Style & Remodelaholic.

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Reader Interactions

I can't wait to hear your thoughts!

Comments

    • Kristi says

      Thank you Jenna! It’s so much fun to see what everyone comes up with!!! As I was making these I couldn’t help but think about how perfect the flowers would be for a wedding!

      Reply

  6. Erica says

    I love how everything you make is totally rustic and totally you! They go so well with your shabby chic garland. Your entryway just looks amazing! Love the idea of a flowered pumpkin 🙂

    Reply

  9. Marie@The Interior Frugalista says

    Kristi your pumpkins are gorgeous! After I finished reading my emails I was going to Google how to make Burlap Roses for a gift I’m making a friend. Thanks for saving me the search! Love the new look of your blog too BTW.
    From one fellow Albertan to another, have a great week!
    Marie@The Interior Frugalista

    Reply

    • Kristi says

      Thank you SO much Marie!!! I’m thrilled to have saved you the trouble! They were SOOOOO easy to make, I’m sure you won’t have any trouble! Super excited to be connecting with another Albertan!

      Reply

  16. Funky Junk Interiors says

    Ohhh my goodness… these are so beautiful! I am over the moon crazy about the white rose one! Pinning!

    Reply

  25. Carissa Rasmussen says

    LOOOVE! What a beautiful way to dress up pumpkins! So many amazing ideas Kristi! Thanks for linking up to Outside {the Box}

    Reply

    • Kristi says

      Thank you SO much Kelsey!!! I actually JUST linked up at your fab party for the very first time today – I tried to leave a comment but it wasn’t letting me for some reason. Thanks so much for the invite!!!

      Reply

  34. JP says

    Quite the ambitious little flower maker you are! Your little trio is the sweetest!
    Enjoy Halloween with your little one 🙂
    JP

    Reply

  36. Debra @ MsMoozys Open House says

    I love all of those!!! I think I would try the felt rose pumpkins though having to make ALL of those flowers might be daunting. LOL I wanted to let you know I will be featuring this post tomorrow on Tuesday with a Twist on my blog. Please stop by for a peek. 🙂 Have a great day.

    Reply

    • Kristi says

      Thank you Debra!!! It was definitely a lot of flowers, thankfully they were super easy to make – the perfect project for working on in front of your favorite show! I’m so excited that you loved my little pumpkins enough to share them! Thanks again!

      Reply

  39. Angie says

    This is such a fantastic post that 2 of the “Tuesday with a Twist” hosts picked this as a feature this week! Both Deb & I featured it without knowing that we both picked it!
    Thanks so much!
    Angie

    Reply