A New Purpose for Your Pumpkin?

So I was browsing the interwebs and stumbled upon Fall decoration ideas, and I saw that someone made a vase out of a pumpkin: Too much time on their hands, or brilliance? Either way, I had to prove that I could do it too. If you want to know how, keep on reading!

MATERIALS:
A medium sized pumpkin, pumpkin carving knife or standard kitchen knife, pumpkin scooper or spoon, small jar or small vase that can fit inside of the pumpkin, and newspaper. (And of course later, have some seasonal flowers ready to put in the finished product.)

*Side note: Yes, a "pumpkin scooper" actually exists. Is that the technical term for it? I looked it up and apparently it is. You can't get much more literal than that. But who actually owns this...err.. pumpkin paraphernalia? Anyhow, I went ghetto and used what was in my kitchen.

STEP ONE: Prep your workstation with the newspaper. (Or your mother will get extremely angry if she discovers you got pumpkin intestines on her antique table.) Just spread out a layer as so:

STEP TWO: Using a pen and the small container that will later go into your pumpkin, (in my case I used a jar) trace around the circumference to get a general idea of how big your pumpkin's opening needs to be. (Later, you might want to increase the size to fit more flowers. In that case, just use your knife to make the opening bigger.)

STEP THREE: ASSASSINATE. Using the knife, carve around the line made in the previous step. I went all Assassin's Creed on my pumpkin.

Once you get that top off, scoop out the insides. (Tip: Save the seeds, soak them for a bit in saltwater to clean them, and roast them on a baking sheet with salt, or cinnamon and sugar!) The inside of your pumpkin should be pretty cleaned out like this:

Do you see why that newspaper came in handy?

STEP FOUR: Place your container into the pumpkin like this:

It's like a vase within a vase. INCEPTION!!!

STEP FIVE: Put your flowers into the container inside of the pumpkin!

STEP SIX: Impress your mother.

(She was impressed.)

Roses are Red.. (and whatever other colors you want them to be, too.)

Follow these steps to create your own bouquet of flowers that will never wilt!
In the following example, I am creating a paper rose. In later posts I will show you how to make other flowers.

MATERIALS: Patterned paper of your choice (thick enough to survive the wrath of a hot glue gun), wire (to act as the stem), a hot glue gun, and scissors.

Materials

STEP 1: Make the base of the flower

This part is tricky if you're not savvy with a glue gun. Cut out a 1-1/2" to 2" piece of your patterned paper, and if desired, cut frills into the end that is facing up. This will be the center of your flower in the end result. You can also add the frills later, although it's a little trickier. (In my photo example I decided not to cut frills until the end.) Using your glue gun, glue the wire as so:

After this, proceed to roll the wire (stem) until you reach the end of your little piece of paper. It should look something like this as you're rolling it up:

Once you are sure your flower's base is secure, it's time to cut out petals. Get creative and pick whatever colors and patterns you'd like to use. Once you have your paper of choice ready, cut out different sizes of petals. You want to start out small and get bigger as you glue petals onto the flower base. Here's an example of 3 petal sizes:

You can make yourself a stencil for petal size and shape, or free-hand it like I did for a more natural look! You can always crinkle the edges or roll them up using a pencil for a more realistic texture.

 Now it's time to glue on the petals! Start with gluing small petals at the top of the base, and work your way down and increase the petal size, like so...

As you glue on each individual petal, press down with your finger to and let the glue dry for a bit to ensure your petals won't fall off!

Keep gluing those petals on until you feel like you're satisfied, or keep going until you can't see the bottom of the base anymore! When you're finished with these steps, you should have a lovely rose:

EXTRAS: You can use floral tape around the wire to make a thicker stem- I prefer not to use it because it tends to unravel easily! You can also add leaves if you desire.

Paper flowers make a great gift to anyone for birthdays, holidays, get-well gifts, and more! Keep working on it, and you can make a sweet bouquet like mine here:

I don't feel the need to think of an appropriate title.

Thanks for stopping by, even though you had no choice. I'm sorry you're being held against your own will.

Anyways...
I'm Madelaine Genevieve St. Pierre. I'm 16 years old, and I'm left handed. Some people say that left handed people are more creative than normal people. So to see if that was true, I googled it. Turns out, left handed people are more likely to kill themselves before their late twenties.

Well that sucks.
But don't worry, I won't off myself anytime soon.

Oh wait. I think I was supposed to talk about myself or my blog or something. I like to draw, paint, cook, play piano, make short films, write, and basically just create things in general. This blog will be about my creations, and how I made them (primarily with my left hand.). Maybe you can make them too.

Hugs and kisses xoxo