My Halloween specialty is making a dinner with appropriately gross food and my kids love it.  We’ve had meatloaf rats, bloody nose soup, eyeballs and a jello brain amongst many other things.  Last year we had a Harry Potter Murder Mystery Dinner that was a blast.  I just love that kind of stuff!

Even though things can get pretty gruesome around my place during Halloween, I also like to decorate with a little sparkle!  Enter these Glitter Pumpkin Candy Holders.  Made out of craft pumpkins, these are super easy to make but will really stand out in your home.  I get a lot of compliments on mine!

But enough yakkin’, let’s get crafting!

Here are the items that you will need for this project:

• Craft Pumpkins
• Martha Stewart Fine Glitter 1.48 oz bottle.  I used gold, turquoise and a light green for the stem. I get mine at Michael’s. Picture below
• Box cutter, picture below
• Elmer’s All-Purpose Glue
• Paintbrush.  I used a foam one.

Determine what size of pumpkin you are going to glitter and then I just eyeballed it and with a pen, drew a mouth on my pumpkins.  Make sure it will be large enough to fit a hand into and don’t go too low so that there won’t be any room to hold candy.  You could also draw eyes and a nose to cut out but I wasn’t interested in doing that to these two this time.

With your box cutter, cut on your mouth lines.  If it is not exact or if there is some line still showing on the pumpkin, don’t worry because it will be covered with the glitter!

Remove the cut-out part and then clean up any rough edges.   Now for this next part, make sure you have your pumpkins on some newspaper or a trash bag because there is going to be lots of overspill of your glitter.  You will want to be able to keep the spilled glitter to put back into your bottle.

With your paintbrush, apply the glue to your pumpkin.  I usually work in smaller sections. Make sure that you have good coverage but not too thick or else after you apply the glitter, the glue will start to slide and cause a glob.   Don’t ask me how I know that.

Sprinkle your glitter over the glue.

Tap your pumpkin to remove any excess glue.  I glittered most of the top part of my pumpkins first, let them dry overnight and then I glittered the bottoms.   I also glittered the exposed edges where I cut the pumpkin and don’t forget to glitter the stem!  Same procedure.

I also glittered one pumpkin at a time so that I wasn’t mixing up the two colors of glitter.  You can just pour the excess glitter back into your jar to use again.  You will be surprised at how little glitter it actually takes to make these beautiful pumpkins!

If you see any areas that didn’t glitter, don’t worry.  Just apply some more glue, sprinkle your  glitter, then tap and that should take care of that.

When your pumpkin is completely dry, take a damp cloth and wipe out the inside of your pumpkin of any glitter residue.

Fill with your favorite candy and you are ready to go.

Happy Halloween everyone!

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Check out these other great Halloween ideas!

Bloody Shirley Temples

Chocolate Chip Spider Cookies

Halloween Hot Chocolate

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I’m Amy from Atta Girl Says, and today I have a gorgeous pumpkin project to share with you, Painted Metallic Foil Pumpkins.

Now, I  think pumpkins are gorgeous as they grow. But I am also of the opinion that everything looks better with a little shine!

And since I’m all about using nontraditional colors in my fall decorating this year, I decided to paint some inexpensive foam pumpkins from the dollar store in shades of blue, aqua, purple and gray and embellish them with metallic foil.

I’ve gilded before with gold leaf sheets that you find at the craft store, but this time around, I used the kind of metallic foil that decorative painters and faux finishers use. I bought mine from a local paint and home decor store, but you can also find it online from places like Royal Design Studio. I like using the foil because it’s easier to work with and comes in an array of finishes: antique gold, copper, bright gold, silver, bronze soft gold and even colors.

I started out with some cheap foam pumpkins from the dollar store.

I gave each one a couple coats of chalk paint until none of the original orange showed through.

Next, I used a foam brush to coat each pumpkin with adhesive size. Allow that to dry until it’s tacky, or sticky.

Then you want to take your metallic foil sheet, shiny side up, and press it on the sticky surface of the pumpkin.

Like so. Press firmly to transfer the foil to the pumpkin, then peel off. Repeat all over the pumpkin.

Your goal is a mottled effect, with some of the paint showing through.

You can foil the stems, as well, or use a product like Rub’n’Buff was or DecoArt Metallic Lustre to coat them.

After you’ve applied the foil, the pumpkins will remain sticky with the adhesive size. Use a clear sealer or acrylic spray to seal them.

I’m kinda in love with these Painted Metallic Foil Pumpkins. I’ve used them to make a fall wreath for my front door and also in our dining room table decorations.

I’ll hope you’ll stop by Atta Girl Says for a visit. You never know what I’ll be up to! Crafting, cooking, decorating, painting furniture, entertaining — I do it all. I’d also love to have you join me on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Here are a few things I’ve been working on lately:

Pumpkin Patch Sign

 White Chocolate Dipped Cannoli with Strawberry Cream

Caramel Macchiato Apple Bites

The post Painted Metallic Foil Pumpkins appeared first on TGIF - This Grandma is Fun.

I made these last year and absolutely loved them.  My daughter also made one which lasted until almost Christmas.  When Halloween was well past, she cut  a little square of construction paper  and slipped it over  the stem and made the pumpkin look like a Christmas ornament.  Multi-tasking decorating!

I was reminded about these pumpkins again this year when I saw this pin from  “A Glimpse Inside”.

What you need:

Small to medium sized pumpkin

Elmer’s Glue

Martha Stewart’s Glitter (My personal glitter of choice!)

Foam or bristle brush

I strongly suggest putting something under your pumpkin to catch the excess glitter.   This way you can pour it back in your bottle.  Even though it may look like this would take a lot of glitter, you will be surprised at how little it actually takes.

This was one of our crafts at our Halloween Dinner last Sunday.  I had lots of helpers to help demonstrate the process.

After your work station is prepared, brush the glue right on to the pumpkin like this:

Be liberal with your glue.  You want your glitter to stick really well.  If the glue isn’t applied thick enough sometimes it will have already dried before you can sprinkle your glitter on.

Now it’s time for the Glitter!

Warning! Warning! Warning!  Be prepared to get glitter EVERYWHERE. Hands, face, clothes, up the nose. This glitter is very fine and sticks very well to most all surfaces, including body parts.

Sprinkle glitter liberally over your pumpkin

You can leave the stem natural or you can put glitter on that too.  I say glitter the stem.  We wouldn’t want to waste a perfectly good glitterable space now, would we?  Just make sure that if you change colors, to put all of the excess glitter of the first color back in bottle so the colors don’t mix together.

Now that I’ve made this Glitter Pumpkin, it’s time to do some Glitter on my toes.  But before I go, I can heartily report that This Pin Rocks!

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