My Pumpkin Wreath

This beautiful wreath I found on the web last week struck me as perfection.  Seeing it and making it were two different things.  I'd love to say I live in a rose colored craft/decorating world where everything is a triumph in perfection but I am here to tell you that my world does not work that way.  

OK, enough for the disclaimer... back to my project.  First of all this is not an inexpensive project, four bags of mini pumpkins were twenty dollars, add in a wreath, five yards of ribbon, a bag of spanish moss and I think I was up to about $35.  If I were to do it again I would certainly consider faux pumpkins but considering this project takes approximately 40 pumpkins I'm not sure that would be an inexpensive way to go either.  I guess the positive would be at least you could use it more than one year.

The instructions say to use a heavy gauge wire and poke it through the flesh of the pumpkin.  Unless you have a awl which was recommended this is pretty much impossible.  I decided to use wood skewers and a glue gun.  This method did work well, I used a screw to make a hole in the bottom of the pumpkin and then put a three inch piece of wood skewer in, I put some hot glue around the pumpkin and then stuck it into the wreath.  This really did work well and I think it was a better way to go than trying to wire the pumpkins.

On the most beauteous wreath they used sheet moss to fill in the voids in the wreath.  I decided to use Spanish moss instead to give it a more rustic look.  I like the way mine came out but I think the most beauteous wreath looks better with sheet moss and that is what I would recommend if you decide to take on this project.

I decided not to hang this from my door.  I can't tell you just how heavy this thing is but I would say that at least fifteen pounds would not be an exaggeration. I decided to use a wreath holder that I have that has a weighted bottom to hold up to fifty pounds.  If I had decided to use the door to hang the wreath I'm afraid it would have possibly damaged the door or worse yet hurt someones foot that walked through the door as the wreath came down.

 

This is very striking from the street, my front door stands back from the side of the garage so unless you are nearly right in front of our house its hard to see what is on the door, this wreath with it's size and color really does look nice. I'll change out the ribbon to a autumn color after Halloween and the second bonus is our high school colors are orange and black so this time of year anything orange and black serves two purposes.  This should last me until its time to put up a Christmas wreath.