What Do You Get with a Carved Faux Pumpkin, a Cat & Other Goodies?

French Ethereal

2 years ago

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So what do you get when you combine a carved faux pumpkin, a cat plus other goodies? Come along and find out at this end-of-summer Pumpkin Craft Pinterest Challenge!… 😉

If you are new to a Pinterest Challenge, our host Cindy from County Road 407 picks a theme or a photograph for us to use as inspiration in creating something uniquely our own based upon that idea. If you are coming over from Lynne at My Family Thyme, welcome! Aren’t Lynne’s pressed pumpkin flowers gorgeous?!! So original… Just previous to this post, Lynne created some pressed flower jars. I think you will enjoy that post, too.

Getting back to our challenge, this month we were tasked with creating something for fall using a pumpkin or pumpkins, some kind of craft…

That got me to thinking…

I thought, Well… I have plenty of faux pumpkins and some years I have real pumpkins all grown and ready to go out in the garden. This isn’t one of those years, but, I had a fun idea!

Why not take a larger pumpkin and make a Pumpkin Diorama?

Okay, a little easier said than done, but after much carving, it’s a go!

How to make a Pumpkin Diorama

Gather together your supplies together:

dollhouse furnishings like a table, chair, some mini foods or china to put on your table
animals to cozy up your diorama space
rugs, curtains or anything for more coziness
print out backgrounds or bushes and trees to have “outside” your windows, if you make windows
wallpaper to decorate the inside “walls”
doilies of varying sizes to make “rugs”
scissors
Gorilla glue, or something like Loc-Tite which will stick to styrofoam but not cause it to melt
skewer for applying Loc-Tite to back of wallpaper pieces

Carve away!

Then carve your faux pumpkin. I began by slicing through the outer shell of this fuzzy styrofoam pumpkin with a serrated bread knife, plus I also used a steak knife. The steak knife ended up being perfect for rounding the corners around the edges of the pumpkin diorama. The bread knife worked well for getting deeper into the styrofoam.

An ice cream scoop worked for digging out the styrofoam and creating thinner “walls,” “ceiling,” and “floor.”

The old Mother Hubbard nursery rhyme came to mind as well as Peter Pumpkin Eater (which my son Peter absolutely hates, btw!)

Art by PB Moss ~ Found on Pinterest and added by Orange Marmalade Press

I thought of a little shop or cozy family room for fall as my theme. I checked Walmart first for little furniture, but they didn’t have anything right now, only online. Target doesn’t have their Christmas things out yet, or I might have found some goodies there.

Then I went to Hobby Lobby looking for supplies in their dollhouse section ~ I had seen some fun pieces a couple of months ago, and yes!

Perfect!!!

I am beginning to add wallpaper here to the inside “walls.”

I found a little white bistro table, some tiny pumpkins, a sweet curled up kitty and some dainty china all meant for a dollhouse. This diorama idea is based upon a greeting card I have, some dollhouse furniture I have from when I was a teenager, and just because I thought it might turn out cute. The prices for these little things were really good ~ $1.49 – $4.99 each.

I also went through my stash of dollhouse furniture and toys I have collected since I was 14 or 15 years old, when my father bought me a Swiss Chalet dollhouse. He thought I would enjoy decorating it.

He was right, I did! (Wish I still had it…)

The pumpkin, though larger, still is pretty small, so I found that most of what I thought might fit just doesn’t. Part of my brain thought, “I could go get several more pumpkins and create a whole pumpkin village with “rooms” in each one…

The rest of me said, “Are you’re nuts?”

One is enough. 😉

I sooo tried to use this lovely floral tissue box celophane as a “window”
or “door” but it didn’t work.

Decorating our pumpkin diorama

Once the wallpaper “paste” of Loc-tite was dry (overnight), I began trying out more furniture pieces. Also, as I was photographing this pumpkin diorama, I realized that I should have draped something pretty around the cut-out opening…

This Wyla Sew-On Braid is close to what I am thinking to glue around the pumpkin edges ~ found at Joann Fabrics

But, I didn’t think about that when I was picking up items for this project. I will go back and add orange or gilded soutache braid as I find some which works.

C’est la vie! It happens… 😉

I wanted a homey feel to this little pumpkin room and even had fun creating a little garden outside the pumpkin itself. Soooo much fun!

The little kid in me has had more fun making this for you!!! The long tobacco basket has worked perfectly as a garden fence to contain everything. the succulents make for great “trees.”