Murderous Pumpkins

I needed something to put on the other side of my Jack O’ Lantern on my front porch, so I decided to make a dupe of sorts of a pumpkin stack that I saw from Grandin Road. (If I won the lottery you’d know, because my whole front yard would be full of that stuff.) The issue is how to you attach the pumpkins? Other tutorials just used hot glue, but the problem is it was visible, and I want to put these outside so I would definitely like a stronger hold. Screws were difficult to place, so I settled on contact cement. Weighting the bottom pumpkin is not necessary, but gave me peace of mind, fall gets windy here!

Materials

• Craft pumpkins ^{_{(I bought mine at Michaels, came to about $30)}}
• Hot knife or rotary tool *
• Craft paint or spray paint
• Painting supplies (tape, brushes, tarps)
• Contact cement *
• Clear protective spray coating
• Weighting material (rocks, sand, etc.)

* The instructions for my pumpkin recommended a hot knife, but I was able to use my Ryobi craft rotary tool no problem.

* Shout out to my husband for trying really hard to make the screws work. It did. Sort of.

1. Start my cutting off the stems of your bottom two pumpkins. This will allow the pumpkins to sit flush against each other.
2. Paint the pumpkins according to your heart’s desire. I painted mine black because my house is white; I wanted them to pop. Painter’s tape was not as helpful as I thought it would be on a curved surface, and I ended up just freestyling. If you are doing the bloody pumpkin, use a thin (cough cheap) craft paint to get nice drips.
3. Weight your bottom pumpkin if you are doing that step. I highly recommend doing this step. A friend bought a Dollar Store look-a-like and complained it kept falling over during our first cold front. Safety first!
4. Glue your pumpkins together, from the bottom pumpkin to the top.
5. Wait for your pumpkins to dry, then cover with a clear coat.
6. Enjoy your creation! For this project I only bought the pumpkins themselves and the cement. The spray paint and coating were from a previous project. It’s always nice when you can use items again.