Upcycled wooden pumpkins

Can you every really have too many pumpkins? I found this set of three pumpkins on Facebook marketplace. They were $20 for all three and they were a good size. I bought them with the intention of embellishing them with some fabric. Upcycled wooden pumpkins everywhere!

Once I got them home I realized that I liked the rustic look. Unfortunately, the larger pumpkins were a little flimsy so they would need to be reinforced with staples or nails. This meant that the finish would be altered. So, I might as well brighten them up completely.

Inspiration

Last Wednesday was Thrift Store Decor Wednesday and the team completed projects using flannel. We each selected one project from our friend Sarah at Sadie Seasongoods new book, Crafting with Flannel. You can view my projects here. The girls found some fabulous flannel at thrift stores. Since my project called for new flannels I did not have a chance to browse the local thrift stores. So this week I took a trip to America’s Thrift Store in Alabaster Alabama to get my flannel fix and to grab some flannel to dress up these 3 pumpkins.

Sarah‘s book inspired so many potential projects for me. This current pumpkin project was inspired by this:

I found these three shirts in the boys section for $1.99 each.

I tried to find complementary fabric. There were plenty of other shirts that were more expensive. I didn’t want to spend alot on shirts when I was only going to cut them up. I liked the green, blue, and orange combinations. But for some reason I wanted to throw some lavender or purple in there. I couldn’t find any shirts with purple so I figured I would use a floral fabric from my stash at home. I did grab a red flannel shirt for a future project. I’m getting ready to decorate my new deck for fall and I think the red will fit perfectly with our dark brown cushions.

When I got home, I found this fabric that I had used to make curtains for my One Room Challenge project Reclaiming the Dining Room. It was perfect!

My plan was to embellish the fronts of the upcycled wooden pumpkins with the flannel fabrics. I started with the smallest pumpkin.

Supplies:

Wooden pumpkins with flat surface.
Assorted flannel fabrics, one different fabric for each pumpkin shape.
Fabric scissors, a medium width paint brush, a sharpie
Mod Podge
one can spray paint in a complimentary color
white acrylic or craft paint, I used white Folk Art
skinny paintbrush or artist brush for lettering
hot glue gun

Trace Your Pumpkin

Lay the shirt, right side down, on a flat surface and set the pumpkin right side down as well on the shirt.
Using a marker or pen, I used a sharpie, trace along the outside of the pumpkin onto the fabric.
Trim the Fabric 1 inch inside the traced lines of pumpkin following the lines all the way around.
Flip the pumpkin right side up and set your flannel pumpkin shape inside. You can trim any straight edges or wonky spots. Remember this doesn’t have to be perfect.

Attach Fabric to Your Pumpkin

Place your pumpkin right side up.
Apply one generous coat of Mod Podge to the pumpkin. I poured some Mod Podge and used my brush to spread it along the entire service surface.
Carefully placed the fabric right side up onto the Mod Podge layer in the center of your wooden pumpkin.
Apply another generous coat over the fabric.
Set aside to dry.

Repeat this process for the two larger Pumpkins.

Here is video of the Mod Podge process.

Add Some More Character

While the upcycled wooden pumpkins looked great with just the fabric, I decided to add some words to the center of each pumpkin. I cut three rectangles from scrap wood. I painted them, added the fall words, and used my hot glue gun to center each in it’s respective pumpkin.

I am sharing this post with Another Loverly Blog Hop: Fall Decorating Ideas! Enjoy the following fall project posts from a few of my friends. Thanks to Juliet at A Loverly Life for organizing yet another fabulous hop. Click on the photo for some inspiration.