Bought a bunch of Fall grab bags from a day of thrifting. Purchased 24 Styrofoam pumpkins for less then what it cost new in the stores, total cost for me was $5.In the large chain stores you pay $13 for 7 pumpkins in small bags. I’m not having fun with this inflation. But we all still can shop smart. Most of these pumpkins will be gifts to friends and family.
The Styrofoam was going to be carved out of the center, creating a hole through the pumpkin. They were going to be destroyed first before I could make them into new pumpkins again. What I hoped would be improved pumpkins. I knew there would be mistakes with this so I didn’t want to invest money into what could very well be one of those comical nailed it moments. You may remember this craft from last year when I made some of these yarn pumpkins when I was up north up at Our Little Red House. I collected the Birch wood logs from the woods up there.
Supplies needed…
Styrofoam pumpkins
fabric and yarn assorted colors
Twigs and little log stumps
twine, raffia (optional)
1. Remove all stems from faux pumpkins, then carve out center of pumpkins to create a hole in the center. Be careful not to make the hole too big. I made that mistakes with some of my pumpkins
2. Once you have the center parts carved out you can started wrapping your pumpkins. With fabric I used glue to hold in place between each fabric scrap wrap. Wow, that’s a tongue twister. Cut long strips of fabric from the fabric you choose, kind of like when you are weaving a rag rug. You can use yarn too. Just wrap from the carved center all the way around your Styrofoam pumpkins until the whole thing is wrapped.
Once finished wrapping add a stem to the top and glue in place. Use faux stems or supplies from nature like branches and small wooden logs.
ASD tips- this shouldn’t be too difficult when working with children on the Spectrum. The weaving needles are not sharp and you can buy a package of plastic ones for kids to use when wrapping their pumpkins in yarn. Carving out the Styrofoam with a butter knife or dull kid school scissors can be fun too, a sensory craft project. If it could become frustrating for your child to carve out the center hole then prepare pumpkins ahead of time and just have your child cut yarn strands in the colors they want and wrap the yarn around the prepared pumpkins instead of carving. Go out and collect twigs in different sizes to bring back and use for your pumpkin stems. This project covers speech, gross ( collecting stems) and fine motor skills. Oh, almost forgot, sensory play.
Happy Fall crafting everyone.
Our Little Red House 
How creative and beautiful! This would be such a fun handicraft activity for kids at this time of year. I miss those days as a high school art teacher 🙂
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It would be fun for little ones, thank you. So much fun teaching children art.
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Really nice yarn pumpkins. The birch branches make wonderful stems. I am sure your friends will enjoy the gifts. Have a great weekend.
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Thank you, just got back to the city. I have all kinds of beautiful photos to share with everyone. Such a beautiful country we are all blessed to live in. Have a great week and I will be catching up with my favorite bloggers later after unpacking. Thanks for that too.
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😊 You are welcome!
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I love these. I will be making some of them.
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Thank you. I finally had a chance to see some Fall colors, so pretty. I will be sharing the photos later. Have fun making pumpkins, they are going to look so cute in your home.
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Molto BELLE!
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Thank you.
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These are adorable pumpkins! I just wanted to say I read here off and on and really enjoy it. Please don’t stop! I read your last post about your family. I too suffer through the same harassment from my family (a sister who is bi-polar and adult children we adopted who have issues and a grown birth daughter + son who have mental illness, and now grandchildren). Just when you think it will stop……it goes on. I so tire of it. I’m 65. And my 62 year old sister still delights in this sad hurtful relationship with me. She’s added family members to sympathize with her. I pray for them all. I know God loves them all as much as He loves me. I had hoped for peace, but its gone on 46 years. My jOY is in the Lord. I say my story only to encourage you to keep up the good fight, you are far from alone. It is them allowing evil in their lives. You are in my prayers, they are in my prayers. I’ll never understand their motives. God Bless you! From a Great Gran in MN
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These are so cute!!! I want to make some! Bookmarking to try next weekend. Thanks!
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Thank you Chandra. They are so easy to make and they are super cute in the table for Fall decor.
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They are beautiful. I love multicoloured ones.
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Thank you Lillie.
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