I've photographed the rest of my project so you guys can see what I did. I suppose it's like a ghetto tutorial.
Anywho, here's the result!
I'm so proud! It looks pretty much exactly how I wanted! I spent a little more money on this project than I intended to, but you live and learn I suppose.
On my last post, I ended it with this photo:
Not so great, eh? I had over-carved and accidentally gouged a large hole through the foam and ended up just cutting the whole thing out. I still wanted the translucent jack-o-lantern look, so I figured I should use something that was opaque white as a backing for the middle section. I scoured my house for a cheap opaque white plastic folder or packaging but came up empty handed. I wanted something rigid so it wouldn't collapse in on itself. A small light bulb went off in my head and I remembered something I saw at Dollar Tree.
Cheapo plastic chopping mats! Two in a pack too! (Just in case I messed up....) See? They're opaque but still let in lots of light.
I placed the mat on top of the opening and traced the shape with a marker.
I cut it out leaving about half an inch border. At this point, I cleaned off the marker with rubbing alcohol and a cotton ball.
I wanted to make the bottom opening a little bigger so I could have better access to the lights. I free handed a shape to cut around the current opening.
Here's how it looks after cutting it out. I broke a box cutter blade in 2 pieces trying to cut this stupid shape out. The weird "knob" shape that sticks out is supposed to be an opening for a cord. I ended up not using a plug-in light. I stuck the plastic inside to make sure it covered the opening.
Due to the ridges in the pumpkin's shape, I couldn't completely glue the plastic sheet all the way around the opening. I only glued where the plastic and the pumpkin ridges touched. Same applied for gluing the middle of the "O" to the plastic sheet. I only put glue on the ridges that touched the sheet.
Almost done....
I had a few rough spots where the paint had chipped off during carving. I covered up those spots with ivory acrylic paint. I even went ahead and painted the exposed edges where I had carved the "O" and around the bottom opening.
Now for the lighting! Originally, I was going to use my old Christmas lights and wrap them around a glass vase I had and run an extension cord out from behind the pumpkin. I plugged in my old lights to find they no longer worked! ARGH! I went to Wal-Mart and found these battery powered 20 bulb LED lights for about $5.
I wrapped the short strand of lights around a small glass jam jar I had saved. I used clear Scotch tape to keep the wrapping evenly spaced.
At this point, you can just set your pumpkin on top and pop your pumpkin on your front porch and you're done! BUT I have a railing the surrounds my front porch which means I had to place my pumpkin on the railing edge in order to be seen from the road. Therefore, I had to come up with a solution to keep my pumpkin from being blown off in case of inclement weather. (It is hurricane season, after all.)
I was going to use a small clear plastic cup for this part, but I didn't have one, so I upturned my recycling bin and found an old yogurt cup.
I grabbed a handheld hole punch.
And punched two holes. One on each side so of the cup.
I put some hot glue around the rim on the bottom of the cup.
And stuck the glass jar on top!
Then, I took some cotton string and looped it through both holes and wrapped it around the railing and tied a bow tie knot to secure it.
There's a timer setting on the lights which makes it stay on for 6 hours and off for 18 hours. I flipped it to "Timer" mode and popped the pumpkin on top! I haven't figured out a way to secure the actual pumpkin itself.... I'm hoping that it'll hold, but we'll see in the next rainstorm! I also used the string method to secure my dryer hose pumpkins to the railing by looping the string through the middle hole of the pumpkin. I tucked the knot into the hole and popped the stems back in to hide it!
And here's a photo of how it looks unlit during the day and lit at dusk!
One thing I forgot to mention, I also sprayed some clear satin varnish on the pumpkin to prevent the paint from chipping. I decided to offset the pumpkin arrangement to one side of the porch instead of exactly in the middle so they wouldn't block the view of the wreath from the road. I think it looks pretty good! Now, I want to put some colorful fall flowers around the pumpkins for a punch of color... Nevermind! I found a faux fall leaf garland at Wal-Mart last night for $5! Yay! Color!
That's all for today's post! This is the story of how my craft fail became a craft WIN! Have an awesome day! Thanks for reading! :)
Read Part 1 here!
Read Part 1 here!
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