Steampumpkin from a dollar tree foam pumpkin - TUTORIAL

We pulled out our Halloween decorations this weekend! Time to put up all the inflatable cats (5 of them, one for each of our actual cats) and display our rather bizarre collection of foam pumpkins.  All of the pumpkins are DIYs and we add to them each year.  There’s no real theme, just whatever floats our boat that year.  So some of our pumpkins are decorated with neon glitter, others are painted with spray paint.  But my absolute favorite pumpkins are my Steampumpkins.

I made the first two several years ago for the Michaels Great Pumpkin Challenge.  See it here on Craft Gossip. I carved a small pumpkin like a brain, and made the larger pumpkin into a cute steampunk jack o lantern.  I named him Jack Catterwall.  His steampunk goggles and buck teeth make me smile every year!

This year I made Jack Catterwall a new friend.  His name is Cog.  He’s a metal pumpkin on the outside but on the inside he’s nothin' but a Dollar Tree foam pumpkin!  I covered the pumpkin with metal foil tape and gave him steampunk features like coins for eyes, a metal zipper mouth, and a pair of goofy little buckle ears.

The metal foil tape really transforms the cheap foam pumpkin to something you’d actually want to display.  And it’s so easy to do!

Read below for a tutorial showing how!

Materials:

• Foam pumpkin
• Metal foil tape (from the hardware store, like this. Any width is fine because you will be cutting it into narrow strips.)
• Craft stick (optional)
• Brown or bronze acrylic craft paint
• Mod Podge
• Embellishments

Cut those strips roughly ¾” wide x the length from the bottom of your pumpkin to the stem.  For a Dollar Tree foam pumpkin, I used strips 6.5” long.  It’s okay if it doesn’t completely reach at the top and bottom.  You can cover that later.

(You can use wider strips if you like, but I’ve found that the thinner ones tend to go on smoother over the bumps of the pumpkin. )

Stick the strips of foil tape to the pumpkin, overlapping slightly and using a craft stick to burnish the tape down and smooth out any wrinkles.

Use smaller strips of tape cover any empty spots at the top and bottom.

Now for the stem.  Wrap some foil tape around the stem (you may need to notch the bottom of the tape slightly to get it to lay flat).

Squeeze the tape together and shape it to make the stem.

The silver was a bit shiny for my taste so I antiqued it with some brown craft paint.  I used some teal paint on the stem, which ended up looking grayish green.  Seal it with Mod Podge.

Now, embellish as you desire!

I used some Tim Holtz embellishments to make the eyes and little ears, and a bit of an old metal zipper for the teeth.  I tried just using E6000 to glue them down, but they kept sliding down while the adhesive dried and I was too impatient to wait.  So I used some brads as push pins to hold them in place.  I also used a couple of tiny brads to make nostrils on his face.