A Fall Front Door (Pumpkin Topiary Tutorial)

October 6, 2010

Considering the fact that my front lawn is covered with fallen leaves, I thought it was time to say goodbye to my ferns and bring out my pumpkin topiaries.

I made these pumpkinaries three years ago. They have held up really well, so I thought I’d share this super easy fall project with you all! Here’s what you’ll need:

– 2 large faux pumpkins otherwise known as foamkins
– 2 medium
– 2 small
– 2 long wooden dowels- longer in length then all three pumpkins put together (you can find them at a
craft store or home improvement store)
– 2 fall leaf garlands
– 2 round or square styrofoam blocks
– 2 urns or planters
– a nail and hammer or a drill – your preference for making holes in the foamkins 🙂
– enough plastic shopping bags to fill the base of each planter (hey, at least the plastic is being put to
good use)

(A glue gun is optional. If you want everything to stay put, hot glue will help.)

Ok. Once you have all your materials, get your magic wand and poof! Ha ha, but seriously this is so easy, it’s hard to even call this a “tutorial”. So, first take your nail and hammer or drill and make a hole (you want the hole to be just large enough to get your dowel through and not any larger- basically the tighter the fit the better) on the top and bottom of the large and medium sized foamkins and only one hole on the bottom of the small foamkin. Then take your wooden dowel and thread it through the holes starting with the largest faomkin. When all three foamkins are on the dowel, push the dowel through the styrofoam base and then place the base in your urn/planter.

Then lift the foamkins up just enough to stuff the base with your plastic grocery bags (this will give them a little snugger fit). Then take your fall leaf garland and cut each into 2 pieces. Wrap the garland around the base of the middle and top foamkins. This is where a little hot glue would probably help, but I just wrapped and stuffed mine. The leaves on mine were looking a little sparse from last year (probably due to the fact that I didn’t hot glue them), so I added a little more garland this year (and still skipped the hot glue).

And that’s it! Easy- huh?! (You will want to make sure that the urn/planter you use has drainage holes if these are going to be in an area that isn’t covered to keep water from collecting in the base.) You could also do this same thing to make a foamkin trick or treater. Kind of like a pumpkin snowman just don’t use a planter and dress up your pumpkin man in a fun little costume. I prefer the topiaries because I’m a bang for the buck kind of girl, so I like to get a lot of usage out of my seasonal decor. These fall topiaries I’ll have out until the day after Thanksgiving!

In addition to my pumpkinaries I added a couple white mums and pumpkins. I used a little black interior/exterior paint to the white pumpkins to add a little fun personal touch.

I’m really loving the white pumpkins this year! If I can find some white foamkins on clearance at the end of the season I may pick some up to make some indoor topiaries for next year! In fact, for a fall wedding some white pumpkins would be so beautiful for centerpieces! Ok- I’ll stop the rambling-sorry, my mind just starts to wander at times.

So, what do you have next to your front door?

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