Last week, I guest-posted a tutorial for yarn-ball pumpkins over at The Southern Institute. Jenny has a wonderful blog, and every Monday she hosts a link party that you should visit! If you missed my post, let me share with you today the full how-to for this project!
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Time: One hour for the project, 1-2 days drying time
Supplies:
- Yarn in an appropriate pumpkin color
- Scissors
- Craft Glue (I used Elmer’s for fabric & paper crafts)
- Mixing bowl
- Balloons for your pumpkin-forms
- Ribbon and paper scraps
- Newspaper or plastic to protect your work area (this project gets messy!)
In a bowl (I used a plastic one I didn’t mind throwing away), mix a bottle of craft glue with a little bit of water. Don’t thin it too much – I used about 3 parts glue to one part water.
Blow up your balloon forms to the size pumpkins you want. The smaller you make your pumpkins, the sturdier they will be, so keep that in mind. Mine are about 6 and 8 inches.
Cut a length of yarn, I found that about about 2-3 feet was ideal to work with at once. Dip your yarn in your glue mixture. I found the easiest way to work with it was to saturate it, and then squeeze the excess from the yarn through my fingers as I pulled it from the bowl. This helped me catch and untangle any knots before I worked with my balloon.
Then, begin wrapping your yarn around your balloon in whatever pattern suits your liking. You will notice I am wearing gloves, but you don’t need to! I just have an allergy, boo.
I originally thought I would only wrap it vertically, for a most authentic pumpkin-look, but I realized about halfway through, that wasn’t going to be supported if I didn’t have intersecting strands of yarn to support my circular form. So, learn from my mistake and wrap your yarn in a random and intersecting pattern.
Wrap all your balloons. My glue lasted for two pumpkins’ worth of yarn. So I made two. Then, let it dry.
This will take at least a day, and possibly two, depending on how much glue/water mix you used, and how thick you wrapped your yarn. Mine took about a day and a half. It’s really important for it to be all the way dry before you continue.
Then, pop the balloon inside, let it deflate, and remove it through one of the holes.
Now just tie some ribbon scraps at the top of your pumpkin to give it a leaf/stem look.
Then, to stabilize my pumpkins (since they are round, after all) I cut a strip of scrapbook paper and made it into a ring base to rest my pumpkins in.
I link to these fabulous parties!
Od jutra zaczynam odchudzanie, kto si? odchudza ze mna?
Wyszperalam w necie dobry sposob na schudniecie, wygoglujcie sobie –
xxally mój sukces w odchudzaniu
What a great project! :) I've featured this post on Craft Gossip here:
http://homeandgarden.craftgossip.com/yarn-ball-pumpkins/
If you would like a “featured by” button, you can grab one here:
http://homeandgarden.craftgossip.com/grab-a-craft-gossip-button/
I agree with Joy….could be good for Christmas, too. I'm going to try making them with water balloon-balloons, which are smaller. Should make some really nice Christmas ornaments!
So cute!
Thanks for linking up to Show & Share!
Great idea! These could be used for Christmas, too, just different colored yarn. Thanks for posting. I'm going to pin this for future reference!
xoxo
Joy
So cute! Just might give this a try. thanks:)
Just wanted to let you know that I featured your project this past friday on the very first edition of “You Sew Rock Me Fridays” @ Sew Rockin'. Awesome job…I look forward to see what you come up with next!
http://www.sewrockin.com/2011/10/21/you-sew-rock-me-fridays-1/
Jamie
Super cute pumpkins! What a fun craft with the kids! So glad you linked up to the Tuesday To Do Party!
Smiles!
Jami
http://www.blackberryvine.blogspot.com
These turned out absolutely beautiful! I'm a new follower and look forward to keeping up with your creativity. :)
xxoo,
Liberty
libertyoriginal.blogspot.com
these are super cute and I love how they are made I think it is so cool come see what I shared at http://shopannies.blogspot.com
What a great idea. I remember making Easter eggs using this process as a kid, but I'd forgotten all about it.
Rachel
adventuresofadiymom.blogspot.com
So cute! The kiddos and I will have to give it a try! They will LOVE it.
Very cute! What a fun idea!
As I was making my daughter's halloween costume I came to realize the mass amounts of yarn I have. Perhaps this will be something to use them for? Hmmm.
I really like these and also like that you could do them in different ways for different holidays. Soooo pretty.
Cute! I'm making all yarn ornaments for our Christmas tree this year. Good to know that the dry time is slow.
Do you mind if I direct my readers to your tutorial on the no-reply commenter issue? I need to get a post up on this soon since I've been getting so many of them lately.
Hi! I like your blog! I'm following your blog & facebook! I hope your visit! Have a Great Weekend!
Namaste!
http://mamiholisticaygenial.blogspot.com/
cool! i like yours a lot- they are super cute