I had so much fun last month crafting an apple wreath, that I decided to challenge myself to make a new door decoration each month for a year.
October, being the month of pumpkins and trick-or-treaters, my theme was obvious.
The first step was to shop our home and garden for materials.
I chose a simple grapevine form, which I had on hand and I sprayed it Rustoleum Paprika, a color that would match my theme and our door.
Since I was making a pumpkin, I would need a stalk. I considered clay and Styrofoam, but settled upon a bunch of dry Muhly grass.
I snipped a handful of dried grass from one of the pots of leftover plants in Jim’s work area. Any dried grass or straw would work as well.
By the way Pink Muhly Grass looks like this in the landscape:
In our area, Tucson Arizona, it blooms September through late November. Jim planted about 20 of these on a hillside and reports that “they flow in the wind.” Now if I could only find a spot for the leftovers in my garden.
My supplies gathered, I was ready to assemble. The Triscuit cracker was going to be the nose, but it was not needed, as I will show in a minute.
Here, my pumpkin is taking shape. You can see that I wrapped the grass with yarn to make his stalk. His eyes and teeth are buttons…pay no attention to my second choice for a nose; the elbow noodle idea was also scrapped. The assembly was a matter of finding a way to suspend the features from the form. After attempting to use thread, I chose stiff floral wire, which I threaded through the button holes and easily attached to the wreath. I also snipped a piece of the grapevine long enough to form a grin, wound the teeth strewn wire around it and attached the wire to the side.
I used a black sharpie to color a few of his teeth black. But even with rotten teeth, he will be the first smiling face people see when they come to our door or drive by our home.
Now, about his nose…our peep hole provided a free nose. Perfect for the theme, don’t you agree? Most of our wreaths hang from a nail on the door, but in order to make use of the peep hole, I used the same floral wire, which I stuck through his stem and hung over the top of the door to the back, where I fastened it with a tack.
Jim’s comment when he saw our little greeter was to say he looked a lot like Wilson from the film, Cast Away. ( We both love this movie.) Actually, I had the same thought when I made his stem. In the spirit of the season, I played with his portrait in my Picasa free photo editing program.
Cute, huh?
I hope my homespun pumpkin has inspired you to try a wreath of your own.
Linking up with I Gotta Create