Today is our birthday!! And in the spirit of birthday-ness, I decided to combine balloons with Halloween in the form of colorful pumpkins! Because we obviously don’t believe in anything very scary for Halloween :)
Really, I would love if I had one of those front porches all bedecked with ghouls and strobe lights and spiderwebs. I do love the spooky side of Halloween for sure! But mostly my porches are just filled with pumpkins that are brightly colored, summery and sprinkley. I think maybe when my kids get a little older (i.e. I feel like I have more spare time and helping hands for decorating), I’ll attempt the scary route. But for now, these happy little balloons fit right in. And since I got them done before my birthday, they go perfectly with my birthday balloon wreath!
As you can tell, carving is so out at our house :) Really, I love a good pumpkin carving but truth be told, I haven’t carved one in years. Probably at least 6. Or 10. It just seems like such a commitment. Even on the years where I bought some specifically for that reason, setting aside a whole night to create a huge mess in the kitchen for something that only lasts a few days just never happened. I truly love the look of a lit-up pumpkin, but as it gets even closer to Halloween, there just never seems to be the time! And, again I’m going to pull the kids into the blame here. There is no way I’m doing the stringy, slimey, seed-filled scene with any child less than 3. Even then…we’ll see!
So, in the meantime, we’ll stick to our no carve ideas. All-in-all, they take so much less time. AND, best of all, they can be made way ahead of time. Unlike jack o lanterns that whither away within days, no-carve ideas will last months! So let’s get to it!
Materials
- Pumpkins //
- Paint in assorted colors //
- Matching ribbon //
- Wooden dowels //
- Cement or Concrete mix //
- Bucket //
- Peeler //
Instructions
- Choose pumpkins that have a balloon-like shape to them. And make sure they have a stem, one that resembles the knotted part of a balloon.
- Paint your pumpkins. I used spray paint because I find that easiest. But craft paint works just fine!
- The dowels used here are 5/16″ wide. I think wider might’ve been better as they would have been more sturdy and not swayed in the end as mine did.
- Decide which side of the pumpkin you would like to face forward and make a mark on the opposite side of that with a dowel. Cut this circle out with a vegetable peeler. Just go in a circular motion while pushing in and it’ll come right out!
- I had originally planned to just stick these in a now-empty flower pot on my porch. But as I mentioned earlier, the dowels were not as sturdy as I was hoping. So I turned to my friend, concrete. Just any bag works! We don’t need this to look super nice. But rapid set it best.
- Pour and mix concrete in a pot.
- Stick the dowels in, with or without pumpkins on them. You can cut them down later if needed with scissors.
- I tied a string around them all to keep them closer together as the concrete dried.
- Stick in a cuter pot, cover the concrete with anything you want! I used some tissue paper.
- Attach ribbons to stems of pumpkins
Well I’m off to enjoy my birthday :) I hope you enjoyed this whimsical take on Halloween decor. Do you have any family birthdays close enough to Halloween that these would be perfect for?
