This year I wanted to do something different with my pumpkins for Halloween. I’ve seen the trend for foliage pumpkins is on the rise, so I thought I’d try to make some myself. Here’s a little how to guide so you can do the same!

To give you an idea of what a foliage pumpkin is have a look at the final pumpkins in the picture below. It’s where leaves and flowers are glued on to the pumpkin to decorate them.

I’ve chosen to use one type of leaf on each pumpkin but, you can layer up different leaves and materials to create a different look. I wish I’d done that now but as it was my first time making them I wasn’t sure how it would go so I kept things simple. You can also put the leaves in a pattern all over, a design on the top, on the side or carve your pumpkin with a face and add some leaves as an embellishment.

What you need:

• A paint brush
• PVA glue
• Pumpkins
• Scissors
• Kitchen towel (to dry leaves and clean up any glue spills
• Leaves (not the crispy kind), flowers, glitter or whatever you want to decorate your pumpkin

I went out early in the morning and collected some brown and yellow leaves, I’m too late into autumn to have got the red ones! I also picked some ivy from a very plentiful plant in our garden.

One – Preparation

Wash any mud off your pumpkins, cut the stems off your leaves and make sure they are dry.

Two – Glue

Coat the underside of the leaf, or whatever it is you’ve chosen to stick on your pumpkin

Three – Stick

Stick on your leaves and put a coat of glue over the top. Smooth out the air bubbles and then layer up other leaves on top.

I started with bigger leaves lower down the pumpkin and then put smaller leaves up towards the stalks.

The finished pumpkin is below, the glue is still wet in this image as it takes a while to dry properly and I was keen to write this post!

I replicated this with the ivy leaves but they were so much harder to keep them glued to the pumpkin. So I ended up sticking one flat side so the other half remains off the pumpkin.

The final ivy pumpkin looks like this. Again, the glue is still wet, it will dry clear!

The next pumpkin I did was with oak leaves. This was by far the hardest leaf to stick on because it’s not got many flat surfaces and the leaf itself is fairly brittle. 

I think it will look good when the glue has dried but I’m not sure! I love the colour and shape of these leaves as it adds lots of texture and is really representative of autumn. Fingers crossed they all stay stuck on.

My fourth and last pumpkin isn’t a foliage one as I’ve replaces the leaves for glitter!

For this to work you need to spread glue all over the bits you want glitter on before you start. Then sprinkle the colours on where you want.

I’ve used pumpkin colours but, you can use any colour glitter that you like. I started with greens and faded it into gold, orange and brown glitter.

I’ve had this one drying on the window sill and it’s been a fairly sunny day so the glitter has really caught the light!

Even though I love carving pumpkins it was really fun to do something different. Plus I could collect the leaves off the ground so this was a really cheap way to decorate and do something different.

I’m still waiting for them to dry and am not sure whether to keep them by the window or stick them outside my front door.

What do you think of foliage pumpkins? Mine are less dainty and patterned than the ones on Pinterest but, I’m really pleased with the way they’ve turned out. If you want some more inspiration have a search on Google and Pinterest to look at other ways people are decorating their pumpkins.

I’ve found a couple of great articles with pumpkin decoration ideas for you to have a look at as a starting point.

• County Living’s 57 Easy Painted Pumpkin Ideas
• Cosmopolitan’s 26 of the best no carve pumpkin ideas for Halloween
• Elle’s 9 Of The Best Alternatives To Pumpkin Carving

I’d love to see what you’ve done with your pumpkins this year. Put your links to blog posts and Instagram posts so I can have a look at them!