It’s Pumpkin Time!

I was at my neighbors recently and her kitchen was full of the cutest pumpkins you have ever seen.  It was such a great reminder that it’s pumpkin time!

My friend is a principal at a local private school and want to give her teachers a bit of fall decor to put in their classrooms. After a visit to Michael’s, I think she came up with the perfect idea to make gifts for her teachers.  Monogramed pumpkins! Didn’t she do a great job?

They were so cute, I asked her if she minded if shared them with you and would she mind if  I made one for myself?

First thing you should know? Pumpkins are 60% off at Michael’s right now. Woo Hoo! Love that. They have several colors, shapes and sizes in pumpkins, I opted for a medium sized tall one. The ribbon was on sale too… I was in “good deal” heaven! If you want to make one for yourself, here is what you are going to need:

Supply list:

1. Pumpkin ( on sale)
2. ribbon of your choice. I used three different patterns and widths. (on sale)
3. Rhinestone monogram – $1.99 ( $1.19 on sale!)
4. Decorative items to add to your ribbon. I got black glitter curly-Q’s – also on sale!
5. Glue gun and glue
6. scissors
7. wire cutters or as the hubs calls them: side cutters

I started by adding my bling to the pumpkin. I put it a little lower than center so that the ribbon wouldn’t hide all that fabulousness!

Next I made the bow. Cut one 10″ piece of ribbon of your choice, you will use this to tie the bow together at the end.

Start making the bow by laying all three ribbons, with the pattern side up, on top of each other.  Make a loop, like you see in the photo.  On the bottom that loop, where the ribbon meets, tightly twist the ribbon 180 degrees. This ensures that the pattern on the ribbon will always show. No one wants to see the tacky back side!

Continue making loops.  The next two loops will be slightly bigger than the center loop -twisting them in the center after you make each loop, just like you did with the center loop. (see photo above) Then make the next two loops, again slightly larger than the last two. Now don’t freak out if it takes a little practice be able to twist and hold all of the ribbon together. You can do it. I promise!

Once you have your five loops completed, cut your ribbon leaving a tail of about five inches. Taking the 10″ piece of ribbon you cut earlier, thread it through the original center loop and tie it around all of the “twists”.  This holds the bow together and will complete your bow.

Now it’s time to “fluff” your bow. I am so thankful for wired ribbon! It makes the ribbon stay in place so nicely.

Next, glue your bow to the top of your pumpkin with hot glue. At this point you can “fluff” the bow again if necessary.

If you wanted to stop here, that would be perfectly fine. But you know I’m gonna give it some bling! I cut 3″ pieces of  tulle and glued them together to form a small bundle. Then glued them randomly to the bow, being sure to hide the glued ends.

I also added those cute black, glitter curly floral picks.  Now that bow just screams “look at me!” My kind of bow.

Honestly, once I got started I could think of a ton of things that I could have done to decorate my pumpkin. Gold or black dots painted on the pumpkin, or dots cut out of vinyl? Michael’s had a ton of blingy stickers – spider webs, curly-Q’s and ghosts that would have looked totally cute as well.  Maybe a witches hat sitting in the bow? Or a glitter spider? Peeps, this could be so addictive!

Thanks to my neighbor for reminding me that it’s pumpkin time and for letting me share her creativity with you!

Until next time…..

                        Tammy