Although I'm not usually one to sing the praises of cheap Made in China merchandise, I do occasionally find myself drawn to Dollar Tree's seasonal supplies. At least they sell their stuff at about what it's really worth @ $1 or less, right?
I was excited to find $1.00 carvable styrofoam pumpkins at our local Dollar Tree recently! I've seen them in arts & crafts supply stores (costing a great deal more than 1 buck & being a little too large in size) and have been wanting to try them out to make a couple of permanent prim pumpkins.
I purchased only 2, as we're trying to downsize for the golden years (hah!) and decided to use one as an Autumn vase/vessel, the other as a whimsical jack-o-lantern. I painted the vase one with acrylic craft paint (1 coat, dark orange) and let it dry overnight. The next day, I dipped a cotton rag in oil-based walnut wood stain with sealer, and rubbed it evenly over both pumpkins ~ wiping the excess in a downward motion (be sure to use rubber gloves, unless you like having the dirty fingernail look for several weeks!)
After allowing the stain to dry for at least 24 hours, I gathered up a sharpie pen and some tools & gadgets to carve the jack-o-lantern.
I pressed a vintage pastry wheel tool to indent 2 wacky looking eyes, drawing over it with a permanent ink pen ~ then added a nose & mouth. I used a basic serrated table knife to carefully carve the face & a hole at the top, for adding a battery operated LED tea light candle. Since the styrofoam inside the nose & mouth was white, I added some color by rubbing an orange marker along the exposed insides. Pretty daggon' easy, and cheap to boot! © copyright 2013 redshedvintage.com
Tune in next Thursday when I'll show you how I turned some plastic treat cups into paper maché party cups...
