A Easy Fall Pumpkin Craft featuring Buffalo Check Leaves

The hardest part of making this DIY Black pumpkin with buffalo check leaves was trying to figure out how to make the leaves.  Once I thought about the easiest way to do it, this craft was so much fun to put together and took maybe an hour.   Often I will create a DIY projects` because I either cannot find what I want locally, or afford it and need to figure out a cheaper way.  This adorable little chalkboard pumpkin with my favorite black and white buffalo check was really enjoyable to create and I just did it for the joy of playing at something Fall themed.  I had so much fun  playing with this silly pumpkin I couldn’t wait to share it with you.

Here is the plain pumpkin I got at Michaels last fall at 70% off.

The first step is to paint your pumpkin with three coats of f black chalkboard paint.  You can use normal black craft paint if you prefer.  Make sure all the orange is covered and let dry.  Now comes the fun part.

Buffalo Check Leaves

We used aluminum tape when working on the dryer ducts in our basement.  At the time I thought this stuff is nice and shiny and there has to be a craft use for it.  If you don’t want to purchase the aluminum tape I bet you can form the leaves using strips of tinfoil and attach the fabric with spray on adhesive.  It depends on what supplies you have available.

Start by ironing a length of fabric.  Starting at one end remove the thick backing from the tape and pull it back pressing the glue side to the buffalo check as you move along.  It only takes maybe 2 minutes.

Once the fabric is attached cut along the edge of the tape.  You will end up with a long strip of buffalo check ribbon backed with the foil.

Draw a simple leaf pattern in any shape you like.  Just make sure to add a little wide tail to the end of it as shown.  You will need the little tail to wrap and attach the leaf to the wire leaf frame.

Holding the leaf pattern in one hand,  cut around the outside of the leaf with a pair of work scissors, I don’t recommend using good fabric scissors for this. It depends how you want to do the leaves on your pumpkin, but I would start with cutting about 20 leaves to start with.  You can make more if needed.

The Wire Leaf Frame

You can use whatever light wire you have, I had some thin silvery wire, so I cut three lengths about 20 inches long.  I wrapped the three pieces together and pinched them into place with pliers.  I then braided the wires together to form a long strand.  To hold the braid in place pinch and twist the ends of the wire together and add a bit of hot glue to hold it. .  In the above photo you can see  how I attached the first long braided wire to the pumpkin.  Once you have the wire where you want it add little spots of glue to attach the wire to the pumpkin.

Once the first first long wire on the pumpkin you can add as many secondary “branches” as you like.

To make a secondary branch cut two pieces of wire twice as long as you want the new branch to be.

Feed the ends of both wires between the weaving on the first branch.

Fold the two wires in half,  crimp together at the start with pliers and then braid the four strands (I just held two together like it was one strand).  When you reach the length you want, twist the wires together and add a bit of hot glue.

Depending on how flimsy your wire is, you may want to add a dot of hot glue where the two wires intersect.

Continue doing this until you have a arrangement of wires to place the buffalo check leaves onto.  Start with a few branches, you can always add more as you create the leaf arrangement.

Adding Leaves to the Wire Frame

Start by attaching a leaf at every junction of the wires, and anywhere you placed glue on the pumpkin.

Put the leaf under the wire, aluminum side up, place a dab of hot glue on the tab at the end of the leaf.  Fold the large portion of the leaf over and press to glue.

Once you have the first leaf on, add a second leaf to pair them.  After that step back and see where and if you want to add any more.

PIN ME FOR LATER

To display my little pumpkin I paired it with a purchased pumpkin for Fall.

When I look at the pumpkin it would be super cute in white with the buffalo check leaves.  But I wanted it chalkboard  for Halloween.

I likely will do something fancier for Halloween with this pumpkin, but here is a five minute update to give you an example of how you can easily use it for Halloween as well.

I added eek in chalk, a little cute ghost, and hung a pretty Halloween mask from the other pumpkin.

Related Posts

This is a widely different neutral pumpkin I made using natural birch.  It’s striking and very unique.  The post includes a tutorial on how to prepare the birch bark.

Neutral Fall Pumpkin Craft Featuring Birch Bark and Flowers