How to dress a pumpkin for Halloween...

 
...shabby, vintage style!

While I love pumpkins, gourds, leaves and all things fall, I don't tend to use them much in decorating.  My home is fairly neutral in color with accents of red here and there...orange seems too vivid against those colors, which means that there usually aren't pumpkins inside the house.

The other day, I picked up an ivory plastic pumpkin from Michaels.  You probably know the one...it looks good from afar but when you get close to it...it just screams cheap plastic! 

But hey, I'm in a creative business, right?  And, being in a creative business, I should be able to do something fun with a tacky ivory plastic pumpkin. 

So, after all of the inspiration of last weekend, I decided to dress the pumpkin in my favorite shabby vintage style...thought you might enjoy seeing the transformation.

 I dug into one of my {many} bags of vintage trims and found the perfect trim to get started.  It's an ivory hand crocheted trim with one flat edge and one fancy edge.  I hand gathered the trim around the top, under the stem, and hot glued as I gathered.  Needless to say, there were a few ouches uttered along the way as fingers met glue!  Continue the trim or lace all the way around to form a ruffled collar.

 
After the lace was in place, I added a collar of pearls all the way around, on top of the lace.  Everything on this pumpkin was secured with hot glue.  These are vintage pearls I found at the flea market last weekend and they were a perfect fit.  Consider vintage costume jewelry, or another trim with a slightly contrasting color.

In the center, I added some vintage trim to build up the height.  The trim was adhered to the stem...very loosely and so some of it peeked over the pearls.

 
The next step was to build a ribbon rose.  I used a wired ribbon from Michaels which was initially a not so pretty baby blue color.  One dip into a tea bath and I had the most gorgeous vintage blue ribbon...a perfect transformation!

I created the rose on a piece of felt...this is a standard roll and twist type of flower.  I started in the center and left a little cavity to insert the vintage stamens.  Again, all gluing was done with a hot glue gun.

The rose should be proportionate to the pumpkin.  My pumpkin is the medium sized one and the rose is 4" in diameter and that seemed to be a good fit.

After the rose was completed, I added a leaf trim to the underside of the felt.  Again, this added to the height and gave extra texture around the top of the pumpkin.

 
I glued the rose onto the top of the pumpkin so that it nestled between the pearl collar.

The rest of the decorating included white paper flowers lightly misted with walnut ink spray and a variety of pearl and bone earrings...vintage of course.

Here are some of the pictures after it was finished.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you've finished decorating, you can display it on a doily covered pedestal, or maybe a platter filled with MOP buttons or uncooked white beans...or place it in a basket or tray surrounded with {real} mini white pumpkins...or, maybe you have some ideas to share with all of us!

So, the next time someone says something about turning into a pumpkin after midnight, it may not be a bad thing at all!

Hope you enjoyed this dressing a pumpkin for Halloween session!

Comments

[peggy forma]

carol
i just love what you did with the pumpkin. i just might have to make one for danielle for her thanksgiving table! and to think some of the items were from your finds in new jersey.......
keep the inspiration happening my friend
hugs and more
peggy

[sharon margiotta]

Thats my kind of pumpkin!

[Cheryl]

Carol,
Thank you SO much for sharing this wonderful idea. I happen to have a couple of those white Michael's pumpkins and may have to go home tonight and create one of these...so gorgeous!

[Regina]

Hi Carol. I'm going to look at those white pumpkins at Michaels a lot differently now. When my orange pumpkin starts to rot and the squirrels are eating out the pumpkin seads, your fabulous pumpkin will be as pretty as Day 1. Love it to bits.

[zandra cudney]

So, shabby chic! Love it, Carol.
Hugz, Z

[Alice]

Oh my ....how gorgeous is this! I love it and love that you shared your talent with us!
I'm new to your blog and come via Rebecca Sower. I just wish I had a tiny bit of your talent. I'm very inspired!

[Louise Murr]

That is SO pretty. I love it. WOW..now I need to go get me a not so pretty cheap looking ivory plastic pumpkin from Michaels....

Louise

[vikki]

This is so pretty, I am going to make one, hopefully before Halloween!! :-}