Feels like Fall...

finally! Today is actually the first day we've seen less than 85°. And ya know what? I'm fine with the fact that it's taken so long to get here! I don't live in Texas because I like snow, ya know what I mean? However, I may not like the cold, but I do love fall decorating! Last year's fall included the addition of this little (now big) cutie... {insert gratuitous picture of cutest baby ever here}

...so needless to say, fall decorating did *not* happen last year. Dinner barely happened last fall, much less decorating, so I am making up for it this year!

I'm sure you've seen the fabulous Martha Stewart glittered pumpkins. If not... well, I don't know how you missed them cause I thought I was pretty much the last person to hop onto the little trend bandwagon that is (are?) glittered pumpkins. Anyhow, the basic gist is a) grab a pumpkin, b) drown it lovingly in glue, and c) coat it (and probably yourself, your workspace, your everything) in glitter. In case you're the visual type (and really, you're reading a blog, so I'm gonna guess that you are...) here's what you'll need...

1. Spreadable glue. My glue of choice: Mod Podge Matte. Just cause that's what I have and use on everything else.

2. Foam brush to spread glue. Mine has obviously seen better days.

3. Glitter. Possibly the best glitter ever: Martha Stewart Craft glitter available at Michael's & Wal-Mart. Their slogan should be "One bottle will last a lifetime!" because seriously, it will. You will be able to make pumpkins until the end of time with one bottle. Should cost you between $3-5 depending on sales, etc. I used Fire Opal, Brownstone, and Smokey Quartz.

4. Coffee filter and scrap paper (I used chipboard).

First step... glue up the pumpkin. Now, do not spread glue over the entire pumpkin and then think that it will still be wet enough for the glitter to stick everywhere. (Yeah, I have no idea why I thought that would work.) This is a tiny pumpkin, so I spread glue over a few sections and then moved to the next step...

...which is glittering! Just open the bottle and start dumping. I don't bother with the little sprinkler do-dad that's in the lid... just easier to dump.

Do yourself a favor and work over some kind of scrap paper... newspaper would be great. Spread it everywhere. Even places that you think glitter could not *possibly* end up. Because it will. Seriously, though, if you're doing a larger pumpkin, I would do newspaper over a big ol' portion of the tabletop. Then set a piece of chipboard on top of that. For this little pumpkin runt I was able to just hold it pretty much the whole time over a coffee filter. You won't be able to hold larger pumpkins the whole time, which presents a problem because eventually you will have glue and glitter over the bottom portion of the pumpkin, too. I recommend the chipboard because the glue won't tear off pieces of it like it might with newspaper.

After you've glittered a section of the pumpkin, it may help to use a soft brush and brush off the extra glitter that's not stuck to the glitter but is still stuck to the pumpkin via static, etc. This helped avoid any extra glitter getting into my bottle of Mod Podge. I could have solved that altogether by just putting some Mod Podge in a little bowl, but apparently that was too much work.

Here are some of my pumpkins on my mantle! It's been gray here all week, so excuse the lighting. You can use the fake pumpkins from the craft store if you prefer. I was concerned with how they would store due to the glitter, so I went for real, although I'll probably switch it up and try fake next time. This post goes out to my friend, Carri, who was at my house last week and exclaimed "Hey, those are *real* pumpkins!" after looking at them for a few minutes.

And, if you prefer your pumpkins un-glittered, here's one more pic from the house. You can find this little Trick or Treat frame in October's Paper Crafts magazine. Super simple masking technique.

All righty, folks! Hope you enjoyed today's little glitter fest. The best thing about this project is that it can be done with tons of things. What about glittering huge leaves from your yard or the park in fall colors? Or acorns? Or what about those paper mache boxes from the craft store that are shaped like leaves or acorns? You could even glitter a frame with a pic of the kids at the pumpkin patch in it. Or put one of those glittered leaves in a frame... might have to try that one. There will be more glitter projects in store for you this Christmas... I'm already working on some other ideas!

Later!

Jessica