My one fall craftiness project this year–pumpkin luminaries. We decided to make these instead of a jack-o-lantern.
This was a fun little project Rust & I spent Sunday afternoon doing together. It reminded us how much we love doing little DIY projects together. Now with two babies, it is hard for us to find time doing stuff like this often.
This is so easy! Just cut a hole in the bottom of the pumpkin, hollow out the pulp, dot your design with dry-erase marker (so you can wipe it off it you make a mistake!), and then drill the holes. Once that is done, you can place either candles, battery-powered lights, or small Christmas lights (what we did) inside the pumpkins. We used one strand of 100 small lights for all three pumpkins & just tried to hide the wiring.
I love how they turned out!
Here was our inspiration:
Celestial Pumpkins: Martha Stewart
Perforated Pumpkins: Eddie Ross
Pumpkin Luminaries: This Old House
For some great pumpkin inspiration, check out this collection of pumpkin projects from Tip Junkie.
This is so neat! What a great idea – and I love your header photo
Great Blog for next week 31. Oct.
best wishes.
David
http://davidtheil.wordpress.com/
This is a great idea. I have never thought of doing it before. It will probably last longer too!
http://www.runtobefit.wordpress.com
Great idea, thanks.
I’ll definitely use it wihle making lanterns with me neice and nephew next week.
Thomas
Beautiful!!
They’re definitely prettier than Lack-o-Lanterns, but something makes me think they weren’t as fun to make.
Crystal
http://www.crystalspins.com
I’m “craftiness-challenged,” yet this seems perfectly doable! Yay!
I wonder how multi-colored Christmas lights would look? May be cool…
Thanks for the tip!
That would definitely be a fun spin on the luminaries!
This is so cool! Maybe we’ll try this this year–I always love doing new things to our pumpkin every year! Congrats on getting Freshly Pressed!
Thank you. : )
I love these! I think a few of these would be great along with the old fashioned faces of the pumpkin. It would make for a different twist on the decor.
I agree! It’s hard not to get carried away. I made myself stop at three pumpkins, but I wanted to do more — three on the table, then by the door, then on steps…
This is the dumest idea i have ever seen!!!!
Really? “the dumest”? Well, isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black.
Learn how to spell before you start criticizing other people, moron.
PS. The pumpkins are gorgeous!
Those are beautiful! <3
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These are wonderful
I love this! Simple, easy for kids to do and elegant.
Really cool idea. I like it because it says “fall” not just Halloween. I think they would look great for Thanksgiving as well. You could even line your walk with them if you were having an evening shindig. Thanks for sharing.
I love that idea, too!
Fall is a beautiful time a season leaves fall and pumpkins make pumpkin pies. Family is the vital factor to it all.
Great idea! They look beautiful.
They are really cool very Inventive
These are amazing! I bet they look fantastic in person!
They look like their from a fairytale illustration!
What an awesome and easy idea! I am totally going to try this. Last year I tried to carve this fantastic pumpkin, ok it was only a cat, but to me it was going to be great. It turned out to look like a cross between a skull and well I don’t know what else. :/
This looks so much easier and I love how it looks!
easier than carving a pumpkin! pretty.
Makes me wish I had a front porch again! Damn the apartment life!
For those of us not crafty enough to wield a knife accurately enough to carve a recognizable face into the side of a pumpkin, this is a wonderfully elegant option. Thanks for the inspiration.
I hear you! I couldn’t carve a pumpkin, but I can draw dots on pumpkins.
Very Crafty!!
Blessings,
Ava
Love the idea, modern, and very beautiful.
That’s such a good idea! Simple, easy to do, and serves as a decoration as well as a a nice light! You could totally do this with a bunch of small pumpkins and line your pathway for Halloween! And you don’t have to worry about people smashing your carefully decorated pumpkins (like what happened to me one year. I’m STILL sore about that…) I’m totally going to do this! Thanks for the post!
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awesome idea! love it!
Have I been doing it wrong all these years? Coz I always cut the top off and it’s hard trying to insert the candle from the top. Thanks for the tip!
I really like that idea. Thanks for sharing!
Cool idea! I like the effect of the pumpins looking like lanterns. Fun to do something besides a jack o’ lantern.
Great idea, it will be much easier than trying to cut my fingers with sharp knives. The kids will love incorporating power tools into the annual pumpkin carnage.
This made me laugh!
That is a very nice idea! I like the way they look!
I love this! I’m going to give it a try. Thanks for posting, and congrats on being Freshly Pressed.
http://www.babycross.wordpress.com
These are gorgeous! Bye bye jack-o-lantern for my Halloween. Thanks for the inspiration!
that’s an amazing idea and they look great!
These are so cute! And I love the black door too.
Beautiful, with a contemporary twist. Enjoy the Autumn!
What a cute idea! love the wreath by the way..did you also make it? (:
http://nataliebrooke.wordpress.com
I did! I made it last year, and discovered that I LOVE making wreaths! For more, you can look at the wreath section of the “Craftiness” tab.
Those are amazing. I love the idea.
So different, celestial looking! Thanks for sharing!
Congrats on being Freshly Pressed! I LOVE these! They are so cute & pretty, want to make tomorrow, thanks for the impetus!
evelyngarone.com
So beautifull!!! Big idea…
Congratulations on being featured on Freshly Pressed!
What a great way to decorate for Halloween. A super idea for using pumpkins.
I’ve never thought about doing that! It is such a great alternative to trying to make pumpkins look like the Mona Lisa or something. Makes them look pretty, not gruesome.
Love this idea. Also using Christmas lights instead of candles – very smart!
Congrats on being freshly pressed!
Taylor
Hey! Awesome Post & Thanks for sharing. You Rock!
your friends,
XR VOLUME
Thats so koo! I just put up my Halloween decorations last night. I hold off on the pumpkins cos I live in Az and the pumpkins don’t hold up nicely in the muggy Oct weather. It’s diff worth the effort to try and I think they’d look quite nice along my driveway! Mahalo nui for sharing a awesome idea. and True, it’s always fun getting the ohana together to do holiday crafts.
Stunning! What a brilliant, classy twist on the usual jack-o-lanterns.
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Looks really nice!
wow! i love how the pumpkins turned out.
very nice!
What a fantastic idea and so safe (I always worry about leaving candles burning). I’ll definitely be using the idea, so ‘thank you’ for sharing……
Very cool! And easy! I bet the kids enjoyed it!
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Love it! I may have to copy your idea!
I’ve seen this done with dried gourds as a more organic looking lamp; I always thought they were so beautiful and wanted to try it out! Never thought of doing pumpkin luminaries! These are so gorgeous : )
Love this
very classy idea
Awesome Idea! I still haven’t decided what to do with ours..
There’s an elegance about this that simply isn’t captured by the original Jack o’ Latern. It’s amazing that it requires such relatively low skill for such an etheral result.
x
so pretty! And a decoration you can keep up after halloween and enjoy through Thanksgiving (which Jack O’Lantern’s don’t really qualify for).
Thanks for sharing!
What a fantastic idea!! I wonder if I can pull this off with three boys? I doubt it’ll eliminate carving all together but I’ll it’s a step forward.
Thank you for sharing! Congrats on being freshly pressed! ~ Jenny aka Backwoods Mama at themagicfarmhouse dot wordpress dot com
That’s amazing! but how can you drill the holes? is it hard, or can you just pierce it with a knife and smooth out the curves? I”m looking forward to Halloween! (or Samhain)
We just used a cordless power drill and a drill bit set. We chose the size of the drill bit based on how large I wanted the holes.
I imagine you can pierce it with a knife and smooth it out–it might take longer.
So simple and so beautiful! Thanks for sharing with us.
they look really great! kudos to you!
i’m feeling the Halloween spirit!
coolest pumpkins ever.
For all of you pumpkin lovers who grow your own.
This is a fun idea if you have pumpkins in your garden.
While the pumpkin is small carve the names of your children or yourself in them by barely scoring the outer skin.
As the pumpkin grows it actually scars in a raised whitish pattern and the name is very visible.
My children loved this when they were small.
Later we made carved pumpkins that were very ornate and I let them paint them as well, each one getting to use there own artistic view of what they would want it to look like.
These pumpkins you have made are just adorable. I love it.
Happy Halloween
That’s a great idea!
Too bad we don’t grow pumpkins.
We had our first garden this year & it was a total flop. Mostly because we had a baby and were too exhausted to really tend to the garden!
so cool!
That’s such a neat idea. The effect is so pretty. Amazing
I love these, they look great and the neighbours probably don’t have anything similar. Fabulous.
Great idea, thanks for sharing!
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Very cute and super easy. I think this is something that we will do at my house too.
http://www.erikabeckwith.wordpress.com
Gorgeous. We’re carving pumpkins today, I might use your idea.
Gorgeous!!!!! I have two pumpkins yet to carve, I may steal your idea. They look wonderful! Love the wreath on your black door too!
This is a great idea! I made my luminaries last night and this inspired me with other ideas too. Surprisingly, my area retailers haven’t started putting out the Christmas lights yet and I couldn’t get any deck lights so I have to use candles in mine. So cute. I have mine out with my jack-o-lanterns.
This is an example of how a little ingenuity can go a long way.. Great idea!!!!!
http://www.knowledge94.wordpress.com
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those are adorable;^)
speaking about pumpkins and halloween, Visit The Screamatorium Haunted Attraction
http://www.ycscreamatorium.wordpress.com/
Open Halloween only!
They are so cute! I wish the British at traditions like that, I would so do the whole Halloween get up.
This is so cool
Great idea that will make your house unique on Halloween.
They are so cute and a nice change from the usual jack-o-lanterns. A nice prelude to the Christmas season and atmosphere. Here in the U.K. we don’t really celebrate Halloween as enthusiastically as you Americans. Hands down, the U.S. always knows how to celebrate popular holidays!
Awesome Idea! I always do the typical jack o lantern but this year Im going to try the lumiaries.
Pumpkin carving isn’t a tradition where I live, but those look fantastic.
Wow that looks amazing.
Beautiful. Last year I cut out some stars in a pumpkin and it came out really nice, but it was so much work that I only did a handful of stars.
Cute and beautiful pumpkin .
Oooh! I like the pumpkins!!
great..!`
Lovely lanterns! We are in the middel of mowing house, so nothing will be done to decorate this home for Halloween, this year. I´ll remember the tip to next autumn.
These look marvelous!
Such a great idea! Thanks for sharing! Now the house looks “autumn-ized” as well as decorated for Halloween!
I tried your idea! I carved holes into my pumpkin all around, with a smiley face in the front. I haven’t lit it yet – I’m sure it’ll look really cool. My daughter said it looks like my pumpkin has the chicken pox, LOL.
beautiful idea. so smart, simple and elegant. keep up the good work!
http://howiwastetime.wordpress.com
Cute! Love the idea!
Wow, what a FANTASTIC idea.
This pic really brightened up my day. I live on a farm bak home (in Ireland) and 2 years ago my dad grew 30,000 pumpkins to sell at halloween. We had about 5,000 left which just rotten away. I fI had had your imagination I could have made some awesome crafty illuminations like yours!
Thanks for sharing!
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Oh, I love your luminaries! They’d look wonderful in our garden. I think our pumpkin this year will look like that!
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Such a wonderful idea! This is really perfect for Halloween. Candles on it would look great but they melt fast, so having those powered-lights are good to go. Cheers!
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Lovely idea !! The best thing is all the raw materials are easy to get. A change from the usual jack-o-lantern !!
why don’t we hollow for christmas
Randomly found this post and I love it! These look professionally completed, and are PERFECT for halloween. I’d love to have these on my porch next halloween.
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