For our Young Women in Excellence, I made these Glitter Gem Pumpkins to go with our Princess theme (girl’s choice, not mine for a theme!)
It is hard to see the “sparkly” in the picture, but trust me, the pumpkins are glittery/sparkly! They are pretty easy to make as well! I made two pumpkins, but you could easily make more or less. (my 2-year-old just pointed to the picture on my screen and said “pumpkin” and then ran and got the real pumpkin to compare…. Ah! 2-year-olds are adorable!)
You’ll need:
- White Pumpkin – I used fake. You could use real, but they won’t last nearly as long!
- Glitter Spray Paint
- Cheap spray paint, the same color as the glitter paint
- Rhinestones or gems with a flat back or adhesive back
- E6000 glue
Finding White Pumpkins was surprisingly hard! Hobby Lobby only had $25 ones – really? That was not in our budget! I found them at Michaels cheaper. Amazon is always a good alternative as well. If you can’t find a white pumpkin, then you could always spray paint a cheap orange one with primer before painting and it would work the same. I was about to do that until I found them at Michaels.
Once you have your pumpkins, make sure to give the pumpkins a coat of spray paint in the same color as the glitter paint you are using! I did NOT do this step. I didn’t read the glitter paint bottle before applying to the pumpkins. BIG mistake. The paint looked awful. I then read the can. It tells you to give a base coat of regular spray paint, before using the glitter paint. DOH! This was an expensive mistake because the glitter paint is not cheap. Lesson learned. Read the label before starting. So I then painted the pumpkins, bought more glitter paint, and then “glittered” the pumpkins. MUCH better results. ANY cheap spray paint will do in the same color.
After the base coat of spray paint is done, apply the glitter spray paint.
Once the spray paint is dry, you can add the Rhinestones. They were cheaper on Amazon than at Michaels and Hobby Lobby. I lined up the Rhinestones on some scotch tape (top side attached to the tape with the back facing up), added a tiny drop E6000 to the back of each rhinestone and then stuck it to the pumpkin. You could do it one at a time, but I found the tape method much faster! Once the glue was dry (E6000 dries pretty fast!), I simply removed the scotch tape. I used the smaller gems at the top and slowly they got bigger in size. I also used varying lengths of gems, to give the pumpkin some character 🙂
You could purchase rhinestones with adhesive backs, or that come in a roll and simply roll and cut to attach to the pumpkin. These options were just much more expensive, and I’m cheap! I wasn’t difficult for me to use some glue and just attach them to the pumpkin myself and save a bunch of money – but to each their own! If it is easier to buy the ones with adhesive already on there or in a roll, go for it! Whatever works best for you!!
Done! The girls were thrilled with the way the pumpkins turned out! They wanted glittery and sparkly and that is what they got!
