DIY Chunky Glitter Pumpkins
Let’s make some glam pumpkins using glitter and paper mache! Glitter pumpkins are on-trend, and their flashy appeal is obvious!
Glitter makes everything better. Almost. It didn’t make my eyeball any better one time when I got to visit the optometrist to get a dodgy piece of very fine translucent glitter removed. That was an unfortunately bad case of glitters. They are rare but can happen 🙂
DIY Chunky Glitter Pumpkins
Even though my tastes have started to turn a little toward burlap and natural things, I still wanted a glittered-up pumpkin that fit into that category. I snagged a paper mache pumpkin from the craft store and a bottle of tacky glue and got after it.
It just so happens that Rob and I are both in love with this simple but pretty pumpkin. It’s a good reminder that things don’t need to be very difficult to be very attractive!
Supplies Needed for Chunky Glitter Pumpkins
- Paper mache pumpkin
(or another pumpkin) - Tacky glue
- Brush
- Chunky Glitter
(or another pumpkin)
If you like the look but cannot find a paper mache pumpkin, you can also use strips of brown paper bags glued to the surface of a Funkin-style, carvable foam pumpkin instead.
How to Make Chunky Glitter Pumpkins
To start, apply glue around the stem of your pumpkin, fanning downward a bit. If your glue is drying quickly, feel free to work in sections.
Glitter the pumpkin over a piece of paper and allow it to sit for a few minutes. This extra time will help more glitter adhere to the glue than if you immediately tapped the excess off. It will also prevent you from finding those weird, chunky glued-together pieces in your glitter later on down the road.
Which reminds me… If you glitter on top of a piece of paper, you can pick it up, roll the sides together, and funnel the glitter back into your jar. Sometimes, glitter is so tightly packed that you might be unable to fit everything back inside if it is a new jar!
Make the glue swoop lower in some places than others for some nice variation.
To add more dimension, you can add very fine glitter in a matching or complementary color on top of the chunky glitter. It will settle into the cracks and give the pumpkin more sparkle!
To finish, paint little glue dots, or dab the tube, around the pumpkin, with more dots near the top and more sparse closer to the bottom. Shake your chunky glitter onto these areas and let the pumpkin dry fully.
Before setting out, give your pumpkin one last tap over a trash can to remove the excess glitter. You’ll never have any glitter to worry about, but this helps remove what will fall off soon anyway.
This pumpkin glitters—it has a disco ball quality with such large pieces of glitter! It is set near a window in the living room.
And it looks spectacular all alone, too!
Also, you make like this DIY Glitter Gourds craft as well:
A crafter since her earliest years, Allison spends a little time every day making something. She crafts, sews, paints, glues things onto other things, and is a firm believer that a life spent creating is a life worth living. Visit Allison’s blog, Dream {a Little} BIGGER.