DIY: Glitter Pumpkins for Fall

Happy pumpkin season! Today I'm sharing with you how to make cute glittered pumpkins for fall that you can decorate with year after year. Oh, and I'm going to show you my "secret" for cleaning through the mess when the crafty fun is all finished.

Carving real pumpkins is fantastic! We carve some every year with the kids, but I also LOVE decorating artificial pumpkins! They can be used over and over again and the work doesn't fell wasted when the pumpkin rots because these never do. Last year I made cute chalkboard pumpkins. This year, I decided to break out the glitter!

I know what many of you are thinking. Glitter and glue are a sticky mess. Right?! And they can be, but I recently discovered a little secret that is a game changer when it comes to crafty messes...

This stuff is amazing! I truly wish I had known about it years ago because there are a ton of times when it would have come in super handy. Well, I've discovered it now and today I'm sharing it with you.

Not to get off track, but I'm so excited to show this to you. My kids often color at the kitchen table. I remind them to try to keep it on the paper, but let's face it... They're kids and some crayon marks are going to get on the table. I noticed that the Goo Gone Spray Gel boasted that it could clean crayon marks off surfaces, so I put it to the test.

With just a few swipes, the crayon marks came up easily. Where was this that time my son colored all over one of the walls in our home?

What about the glittery, gluey mess from the craft I'm showing you today?

Goo Gone to the rescue again! The Mod Podge and spray adhesive used to make our Glitter Pumpkins came right up with a few sprays of the citrus scented gel. Just spray and swipe with a clean, damp cloth. That's it! Usually cleaning up after a craft like this would take way too long, but the Goo Gone made it really easy.

Seriously! You have got to try this stuff. It would have made cleaning up the mess from this craft and getting the sticky residue off these jars SO much easier! I know about it now though, and I'm keeping it on-hand for all our future crafty messes. As much as I love to craft, this stuff is going to get used all the time!

Feel more confident about tacking today's craft now that you know my little secret to an easy clean-up? Let's get started then!

Glitter Pumpkins
Supplies

• artificial pumpkin(s)
• printable template (Find it below. Save, open, and print!)
• cutting mat
• swivel knife for paper cutting
• spray adhesive
• foam brush
• Mod Podge
• glitter
• Goo Gone Spray Gel (For easy clean-up of the sticky messes!)

Directions

1. First you need to gather all of your materials and prepare your artificial pumpkins. My pumpkins came with a big sticker on the bottom that needed to be removed. The sticker came off easily but left a residue that needed a little help from the Goo Gone Spray Gel to come off. Isn't this product amazing?! Stickiness gone!

2. Save, open, and print this template. There are two different parts. The one that reads, "Happy Fall!" would work best on larger pumpkins and the one that reads, "Fall!" is perfect for smaller ones.

3. Use a swivel knife and self-healing cutting mat to cut around the lettering on the printable.

4. Lightly spray the back of your template with a spray adhesive. It's important to just spray one light coat. You don't want the template to stick to the pumpkin and leave behind the adhesive. Trust me on this one. I learned through trial and error and had to start again. The Goo Gone got the spray adhesive off the pumpkin, and I was ready to give it another try. Just a super light coat of spray adhesive is all you need. If you feel like the template is too sticky, repeatedly press your fingers over the stickiness until it has more of a tacky feel.

5. Place the template onto the pumpkin. Press around the lettering in order to ensure that Mod Podge stays where you want it to go. Use a sponge brush to lightly brush a coat of Mod Podge across the template.

6. Sprinkle a generous amount of glitter over the Mod Podge. Shift the glitter around and shake off the excess.

7. Gently remove the paper template from the pumpkin and allow it to completely dry.

Alternative idea: You can also completely coat a pumpkin in Mod Podge and shake glitter over it. Add a second coat of Mod Podge and glitter to ensure full coverage. This works best if you coat the entire pumpkin in Mod Podge before adding the glitter rather than doing it in sections.

PIN IT!

These make a sparkly fun decorating for fall! I've already set ours out, and they look so cute. Just looking at them makes me happy! Have you ever tried decorating with artificial pumpkins? Where would you display yours?

Happy crafting!