DIY Halloween Pumpkin Topiary

The inspiration for my pumpkin topiary design comes from the very first set of pumpkins I ever carved about 5 years ago.  This photo brings back a lot of memories as I was celebrating the holiday with my little man.  His head was so big that it couldn't fit his lion costume. Haha! 

I knew that if I wanted to have a pumpkin topiary that I wanted it to be something that I could use over and over again.  Funkins are a brand of carveable pumpkins available at craft stores.  I got my Funkins/faux pumpkins from Hobby Lobby.  While I was there, I also picked up some black and gold acrylic paint, fine black, gold and silver glitter.  

I began drawing out my design in pencil before using a pumpkin carving set to cut out my design.

Then using the above pumpkin carving tools, I cut out the design and used black paint with glitter for the stripes and cat.  In hindsight, I think it would have been better to paint the pumpkin then use Modge Podge to apply the glitter (otherwise the glitter comes off too easily).  A mixture of gold and silver glitter for the moon and outlining the stars for the top pumpkin.  

A hole was cut on the bottom of each pumpkins so that I could add a flickering tealight and stack them easily onto each other.   

I also painted a wooden circles black to place in the urn (these wooden circles are available at any craft store).  I wanted the bottom pumpkin to be elevated slightly above the leaves that I was placing around it so I hot glued a smaller wooden circle on top of the larger one to achieve that.

Wooden Plaques at Joann Fabric and Crafts

Then using a mixture of Fall and Halloween leaves (I used a black Halloween leaf garland and an autumn branch from Michaels), I glued the leaves around the base of the larger wooden circle.  I found that as I was stacking my pumpkins, the largest pumpkin was a little uneven so I used a bit of styrofoam so my topiary wouldn't tilt. 

Among my Halloween crafts this year, this happens to be one of my favorites! 

Overview of Materials: 

-  Black Urn (Joann Fabric and Crafts is where I got mine)

-  Large, medium and small Funkins (Hobby Lobby)

-  Black Acrylic Paint & Paint Brushes

-  Fine Black Glitter & Modge Podge

-  Gold Acrylic Paint & Fine Gold and Silver Glitter

-  Pumpkin Carving Tools

-  Large round wooden circle/plaque (to fit the inside of the urn so that leaves can be glued onto it).

-  Small round wooden circle/plaque (hot glued on top of the larger wooden circle so that the pumpkin can rest upon it).  

-  Black Halloween Leaves and Fall Leaves (Michaels)

-  Hot Glue Gun (to glue wooden circles together, large and medium pumpkins together).  

- Faux tealights (please do not use real candles in the Funkins).  

Directions:

1.  Paint both wooden circles/plaques black.  Let dry.

2.  Draw out design on all Funkins.  For the stars on the smallest pumpkin, I used a small cookie cutter to make the outline.

3.  Using pumpkin carving tools, cut out the design and create a hole at the bottom of each pumpkin.  You may need to trim off the stem of the large and medium pumpkin so that they can be stacked on top of each other.

4.  Paint the pumpkins.

5.  Using Modge Podge, go over the areas that you want to add glitter (for me it was the black cat, stripes, moon and outlining the stars) then sprinkle the glitter on.

6.  Glue the wooden circles/plaques together then place into the urn.  

7.  Place the larger pumpkin on the wooden circle/plaque and begin to hot glue leaves around onto the  circle.  

8.  Hot glue the large and middle pumpkins together.  

9.  Stack the pumpkins on top of the other.

10.  Faux tealights (please do not use real candles inside the Funkins).