Welcoming Autumn In

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Hot soups on the stove, leaves crunching under foot, trees ablaze with color – fall has arrived!

With so many pumpkins around, what better way to decorate?  There are, of course, the carved pumpkins and we shall do a Post on those next week but this week we thought it would be fun to explore some other ways of decorating with pumpkins.  Carved pumpkins are great for Halloween but they do not last long.  Before you know it, your pumpkin begins to get soft and cave in.  But there are other ways to use your pumpkins and still stay in the Halloween spirit.
                                                                                                  (photo from BHG.com)

In order for your fall embellishments to last longer, it is better to keep your pumpkins intact.  Here are a few fun ideas for using this season’s bounty to decorate your home.

One way to decorate them is to write on them.
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You can see in the video how we have written “Welcome” on our pumpkin and ended up with great writing.  Certainly, we did not do it freehand!   We first typed it out on the computer in the font the we thought would look best (font is Edwardian Script) and then chalked the back of the paper with ordinary chalk.  We then placed the paper on the smoothest part of the pumpkin and “wrote” over the letters with an ordinary pen.  This chalked the letters onto the pumpkin.   Once you have that template, you just use a Sharpie or a thicker felt pen to write over the chalk.

You could write anything on a pumpkin –

                                                                                                    (photo from BHG.com)
your initial, your monogram, your family name, your street number, or simply Welcome!  Or if you are having a dinner party what fun it would be to write your guests’ names on little pumpkins and use them for place cards!

Want something a little more elegant?   Why not spray your pumpkin with gold or silver paint?

You can even spray some on, then rub some off to give you a bit of a “burnished” look.  Another idea is spray some glue onto your pumpkin and then drop some glitter on it….you have just created a bit of a sparkle!

You could do this for place cards at your Thanksgiving table and fill your guests with sparkle!  A not too deep slit made with a sharp knife in the top of a small glittered pumpkin will house a place card.  Or you could follow the steps in the video to see how to transfer a word on the pumpkin, and, rather than using a Sharpie to go over the word, go over the chalked word or name with a glue pen and then sprinkle gold glitter dust over it.  Voila, you have a gold-dusted name and place card and another way to let your guests know that you have prepared a special place for them..

There is really no end to the ideas for decorating this season.  We would love to hear the ideas that you have come with so we can share them with all our chums.  No matter what you do in your decorating be sure to welcome autumn in with love, joy and abundance!