Five Little Pumpkins You Can Make

Five Little Pumpkins

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate,
The first one said, "Oh, my it's getting late!"
The second one said, "There are witches in the air!"
The third one said, "Well, I don't care!"
The fourth one said, "Let's run and run and run!"
The fifth one said, "I'm ready for some fun!"
Ooooo went the wind and out went the lights
And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight!

Does anyone besides me remember learning this poem in kindergarten?  And by the way, I went to kindergarten a long, long, long time ago, but I still remember this poem.  Actually, I remember almost all the songs and poems I learned in school.  Why?  Because I liked them and what we like we tend to remember.

Today's adorable tutorial is really inexpensive!  All the supplies came from the Dollar Tree and the five little pumpkins cost me a total of $3.00.  You did not misread that nor did I mistype the figure - $3.00.   How is that for a great price?  

I first saw this project on a blog site called ALittleTipsy.com.  I thought it was so cute that I pinned it to my Pinterest board and, of course, I had to try it!  So, I made a trek to the Dollar Tree and bought two packages of pumpkin-shaped doilies.  Each package contains 32 doilies and each pumpkin has 12 doilies in it, so I was able to make 5 little pumpkins.  The packages of pumpkin doilies are mixed in with packages of  leaf-shaped doilies so you may have to search through the rack to find them.  I also purchased a glue pen made by Elmer's.  It is fantastic to use on this project because it has a narrow pen-like dispenser on one end and a wider dispenser on the other end which makes it perfect for gluing the doilies together. 

To make a pumpkin, count out 12 doilies.  They stick together, so be very careful peeling them apart so that you don't tear them.  Fold each doily in half with the bright orange side facing out.  Make a sharp crease down the fold.  

Open each doily out and place some glue on one side.  I used the wide dispenser  on the glue pen for this.

Fold the doily back in half, pressing the two halves together to make sure the glue holds.  Stack the twelve folded doilies up with creased sides together.  Run your fingers down the creases again, then press them together tightly.

Pick the stack of doilies up holding them tightly in one hand.  Using the wide dispenser on the glue pen, run a bead of glue down the folded edges making sure all edges get some glue.

Run your finger up and down the glue making sure all edges are covered.  Now, stand the pumpkin up on the curved edges with the glued side up to let the glue dry.  (They reminded me of apple slices.)

When the glue is dry, open the pumpkin up by folding each doily sort of back and forth, working with it carefully until it will stand on it's own.  You may want to place a small dot of glue on the first and last folded doily to help it stay open.  I also used the small pen-like dispenser to put tiny dots of glue on the open doily edges to help keep them from curling open.  

Now, you need to make some little squiggly stems and add a small leaf to the top of the pumpkin.  ALitteTipsy.com used some little metallic garland for this step.  I used some thin floral wire I had and a couple of little leaves that I cut off a stem of silk flowers.  Wrap your garland or wire around a pencil (I used a paint brush) like this. 

Remove the wire from the pencil and it will be curled tightly.  Stretch it out a bit and wrap it around the top of the pumpkin stem and glue a leaf to the stem.  It should look like this.

  How can that not make you smile?  I have some of these adorable little pumpkins on my mantle and the others sitting around the house in different places.  Remember - $3.00 for 5 cute little pumpkins.  Enough said.

This would be a great project for children to make.  They may need a little help with gluing all the doilies together, but they are just so cute and inexpensive.  They would also make great table decorations for any autumn event and would be quick, easy  and inexpensive.  You know, my three favorite words.  I hope you will give this fun little project a try.  I mean seriously, there is nothing cuter than a paper doily and now you have a paper doily pumpkin!  Fantastic!

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

Instead of counting your days, make your days count.  ~Author Unknown