Pumpkins!

Friday night was our burg's annual Halloween party downtown that includes a fun pumpkin decorating contest. My son & I have entered the past 4 years and my crazy creative kid has WON the kids' division for the last 3 years!! This year he came up with a design of a spooky pumpkin escaping a haunted graveyard. He did everything absolutely all by himself except for me spray painting the box lack. I wish I could've got a video of when they announced that he was the winner, he was so excited!!

Here it is:

A close-up of the gravestone and Otto trying to escape the grave:

---

And I struggled trying to decide how to decorate my pumpkin. I poured over google images trying to find something unique and fun. I stumbled across this idea from a neat blog I found, That Artist Woman. I just fell in love with the diorama idea! This was the one she featured:


I changed my design somewhat, here is my final product:



The purchased items include the owl (World Market), red credenza (Dollar Tree), skeleton & rat (Dollar General). I made the curtains & foot stool out of sticks and fabric scraps. The window panes are sticks. His chair is made from a toilet paper tube. I had the little pumpkin in my fall decor already and the rest of the stuff is from the back yard! Sticks, grass, leaves...I made even the little broom, that was fun. The welcome mat & Halloween sign are birch bark that my son gathered when he was out searching for supplies for his. To hold it all together I used a LOT of hot glue, tacky glue and straight pins. It actually ended up very secure and made the trip there & back in the trunk with no problem.


I used two battery powered tea lights on the "ceiling" to illuminate the inside of the pumpkin. I carved out a place up top then used two long kabob sticks to hold them in place.

Unfortunately I did not win the grand prize (voted by a few judges) but I did win the "people's choice award" which was still plenty exciting for me! I had so much fun making it and I'm already coming up with plans for next years, I'll definitely do another diorama but something a bit different. I hope for my sanity's sake I start a bit earlier this year, though I think I work best under pressure.

I call it the "skeleton bachelor pad." I think he needs to turn his lights off and go to bed....which is where I'm headed too.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!