Showing posts with label Fall / Halloween. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fall / Halloween. Show all posts

October 2, 2016

Dollar Store Mosaic Pumpkin, Dollar Store Stone Planters and more Dollar Halloween Ideas

dollar store mosaic pumpkin diy
Sharing a couple of quick projects I completely recently that 
happen to be dollar store projects including this mosaic pumpkin.

dollar store stones diy ideas
It started when I decided to cover a couple of planters of 
artificial grass with stones. These grasses are the type
you can find in lots of stores where the fake grass is embedded in foam
and glued into a ceramic or clay pot. I didn't care for the pots they 
were in and hunted for other pots to stick them in but then just decided
to cover them with stones.

dollar store rocks, pebbles, stones diy planters
I grabbed a couple of bags of rocks from Dollar Tree.

tile adhesive
I smeared the existing planters with a very thick layer of 
ceramic adhesive. I tinted my adhesive with a little 
brown Tints-all colorant so it wouldn't be stark white.

This adhesive is not recommend for constant water exposure
and I'm not sure if it can be used in areas that freeze.
We live in Florida so that's usually not a problem and I have
them out on our covered patio so they don't get wet, unless you
count the humidity!

rock planters diy
After adhesive is smeared on, simply push the rocks into the adhesive.
It's easier to do sections at a time but I'm impatient and did it all at once
very carefully, except for the edges at the top and bottom.
Just make sure the adhesive is thick enough to really grab your rocks.

diy stone rock planters dollar store
I forgot to take a "before" pic of the other planter but I applied the same
technique with this planter...I had two of them so you can see the
before on the right and after on the left.

lacquer spray
When completely dry, I sprayed them with clear lacquer to bring the 
color out and add a glossy finish. I covered the artificial grass
with a plastic bag to keep the lacquer from getting on the leaves.

dollar store planters
I have them out on our porch for a little extra color/greenery.
In my defense of using artificial greenery...I do have a live palm
tree out here as well!

dollar store pumpkin mosaic
While I was at the dollar store, Halloween decor was out so I snagged
a mini foam pumpkin. Wow! They used to have decent looking little faux 
pumpkins like I used for my studded dollar store pumpkins years ago. 
This one was pretty hideous, but... I bought it anyway.

things to make with stained glass scraps mosaic pumpkin
As you might know, I'm a mosaic artist and had beautiful
red/orange stained glass scraps that I thought would be
perfect for this sad little pumpkin. I snipped the scraps into
little triangles.

dollar store mosaic pumpkin mini pumpkin
I use Weldbond glue and I love it because it's non toxic and no
fumes but it is not an instant set glue. This is fine when I'm working 
on mosaics on a flat surface but on this guy I worked in sections
on it's side letting each section dry before moving to the next.

dollar store mosaic pumpkin diy how to
Glass is complete

dollar store mosaic pumpkin diy how to make it
I grouted with sand colored grout...cute, but...wasn't the look 
I had in mind...

dollar store mosaic pumpkin diy how to
So I painted the grout with orange acrylic paint...
better, but not exactly sold on it. 

And yes you can paint grout, I use this same technique for my 
octopus mosaic surfboard to get the red background color on the tentacles.
Simply paint, then quickly wipe away any excess paint from the tiles.

dollar store mosaic pumpkin diy
Lastly I added a wash of metallic gold over the orange paint and
this was more the look I had in mind.
You can see the DIY solar pumpkins I was working on the
background.

diy dollar store mosaic pumpkin
Before and after.
Now I realize everyone doesn't have access to stained glass pieces
but I'm thinking your could do the same process with glass stones,
pennies or even stones like the planters above. They had "pebble" sized
stones that were much smaller than the rocks I used on the planters.

mosaic pumpkin
I added the little mosaic pumpkin to other Fall decorations in 
our entryway.

dollar store diy skull candlesticks
While we are on the dollar store train, you might remember the dollar 
store spooky skull candlesticks I made a few years ago. 
One of my sister's wanted them so they live with her now.
I saw more skulls when at the dollar store, I kind of wish 
I had picked one up to mosaic it too!

dollar store Halloween raven and mosaic pumpkin
My pumpkin is shown with the DIY large Halloween raven 
I also made from scratch and I tell you exactly how I made it!

I love the challenge of taking something simple, like a bag of rocks
or cheap foam pumpkin, and making it look like a million bucks...ok maybe not
a million but at least $10 bucks! lol
Thanks for reading about my dollar store ideas.

Visit my new online store for coastal and nature themed mosaic art, and
coastal ornaments. 
Find me on FacebookPinterest, InstagramYoutube
Cheers!
~Lucy

September 25, 2016

Solar Halloween Pumpkins, Turn Artificial or Edible Pumpkins into Solar Pumpkins, Quick and Easy DIY Tutorial


turn artificial pumpkin into solar pumpkin
I can't take credit for this idea, I read somewhere about using a solar light
 in a real pumpkin but I had not seen them made with artificial pumpkins.

solar light pumpkin easy diy
I've had these plug in artificial pumpkins since my boys were little.
They are 18 and 20 now, just goes to show how long this foam lasts!
We still like to put them out at Halloween but I wasn't happy about all the 
electrical cords everywhere. We use solar string lights at Christmas
and solar pathway lights that work beautifully so I thought this
would be a great solution... plus...free energy, what's not to love?

To start, I cut and removed all the electrical cords and light bulbs.

use solar light for pumpkin diy
Solar lights...about .99 each, found at Walmart

solar lights for a pumpkin tutorial
I removed the bottom stake part that you would normally stick in the ground.

turn your pumpkin into solar pumpkin
For this pumpkin I loved the stem on it since it was natural looking and 
didn't want to cut it off so I decided to put the light towards the back of 
the pumpkin. I drew an outline in the diameter of the plastic globe
part of the solar light, predrilled a large hole and used a tiny serrated knife 
to cut the rest away.

solar light pumpkin
Inserted the plastic "globe" part. It fit snugly, I didn't use glue.

solar light pumpkin how to
The solar charger part screws on to the clear globe.
The whole process took about 5 minutes.

solar light up pumpkin
I was in my garage studio when making them but had to go into the 
closet to check it out...success!

foam pumpkin with solar light diy
I had two more pumpkins in a smaller round size that had  plain
foam stems. I cut those off and repeated the steps above to insert the 
light directly on top to mimic a stem. I brushed on a little 
brown paint and polyurethane to seal.

foam pumpkin makeover idea
You can see how beat up this little guy is. I ended up applying a quick coat 
of paint then poly to freshen all of them up.

fall Halloween pumpkin topiary
Since it's not Halloween yet and I live in Florida and it's still like
90 degrees...not good for fresh pumpkin life... I simply turned 
the pumpkin faces to the rear so it looks like I have whole
pumpkins on the porch. 
Of course now that I placed the solar light in the back of the 
large pumpkin to save the realistic stem, it doesn't look so 
great turned around so I just left it out of the pic. 
In hindsight I would have cut the pretty stem off !

painted pumpkin topiary and solar pumpkins
Shown with my painted pumpkin topiary I made last Fall.

diy solar pumpkins
Sorry for the grainy pic but I took this at night, they really do work well.
When it's closer to Halloween, I may have to move them to the edge of
the porch so they get a good dose of sun for maximum solar charge but
even with the morning sun they've been getting, they seem to work fine.

fall decorating with foam pumpkins
The rest of the porch is decorated with cats ;)

diy pumpkin makeovers
Thanks for reading about my solar light pumpkins!

Visit my new online store for coastal and nature themed mosaic art, and
coastal ornaments. 
Find me on FacebookPinterest, InstagramYoutube
Cheers!
~Lucy

October 8, 2015

Hand Painted Pumpkin Topiary for Fall and Halloween

pumpkin topiary diy
My latest Fall creation, a large pumpkin topiary using artificial pumpkins.

Michael's foam pumpkin topiary
I didn't take "during" photos but it's a simple process and this is what I 
started with. The huge white pumpkin I used for the base was purchased at Michael's.
This size can be pricey but it happened to be on sale the day I bought it.
The medium sized black pumpkin was found at Target last year and the small
pumpkin is one I already had that I had painted with dots and stripes years ago.
I also purchased a few fall leaf garlands at Michaels.

painted black and white stripe pumpkin
I love that you can reinvent and reuse these artificial pumpkins!

Here they are before assembly when I was still painting them.
For the large bottom pumpkin, I spray painted it off white. I was already a 
cream color but I wanted a crisper background. After it was dry, I 
painted thick, black stripes using regular acrylic craft paint.

The middle pumpkin was already glossy black so I only
painted gold metallic dots. I used several layers of 
DecoArt Dazzling Metallics in Glorious Gold to get the opaque look
 I was going for. I love this particular gold, it is my go-to gold color.

The top pumpkin had to be primed with spray primer to cover the previous orange 
stripes and dots and then sprayed with orange spray paint. If you already 
have an orange pumpkin, you are good to go.

hand painted foam pumpkin
To create the top pumpkin design, I grabbed a small swirly stencil
 I had and just held it in different areas over the pumpkin while I sponged on top of
the stencil with dark metallic gold to get the scrolled pattern. It doesn't have to 
be perfect. You could also free hand gold swirls, or paint whatever
design you like!
I added a few highlights by loosely painting over the stenciled area with a lighter gold.
After dry, I brushed the whole piece with watered
down brown paint and quickly and gently wiped away the excess to give it a little
depth. I painted the stem gold and sealed the whole thing with spray satin sealer.



Michael's pumpkin topiary
All the pumpkins and the leaves are glued in place with hot glue. 
I already had the black pedestal planter on hand and the topiary actually just sits on top of the urn with a few spots of glue to hold it in place so I can remove it later. 
The whole pumpkin stack is surprisingly light.

pumpkin topiary, solar pumpkins
I love the look of it on our front porch along with our solar pumpkins.
You can spin the pumpkins with the cut outs facing to the back for just a regular pumpkin look.

I originally created this post in 2015. It is Fall 2019 and here it is today. This
year I set it on top of a wooden basket for the base.

black and white striped pumpkin wreath
I added a wreath that I found at a local store but plumped it up with 
more fall foliage sprays and small foam pumpkins that I painted with
black and cream stripes.

striped pumpkins diy


See my other Halloween and Fall decorating ideas 

owl pillow, raven pillow

diy painted Halloween pillows
They turned out great and add a little Halloween flair to the back porch.

painted Halloween pillows

painted Halloween pillows
Fall 2019, I moved the painted pillows to the front porch.

pumpkin topiary, solar pumpkins Fall decorating

Thanks for checking out my pumpkin topiary. 
Happy Fall, Happy Halloween, and all that good stuff!

Visit my new online store for coastal and nature themed mosaic art, and
coastal ornaments. 
Find me on FacebookPinterest, InstagramYoutube
Cheers!
~Lucy

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