Fall Craft Photo Challenge!! =)

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I wanted to share these cute Flower Pumpkins I made and am entering in the Fall Craft Photo Challenge put on by Sizzix!!
I had a FUN time brainstorming what I was going to create and in the end there was only one project I could make!! I decided on a CUTE Pumpkin that I have been wanting to create since I was inspired from a Pin I had pinned on Pinterest last fall!! The link wasn't available anymore but hopefully you'll get the idea!!

I LOVED these pumpkins that were covered in flowers and I thought it would be a GREAT Project to recreate using the MANY different Floral Dies that I have collected by Sizzix!!  First I had to decide on the medium I wanted to use to recreate a floral pumpkin and although I think paper would be neat for this project I myself think of  felt and canvas when in comes to the texture you can get plus they just say fall to me!! So I started out by cutting enough flowers to cover my base which believe it or not is a nerf ball!!  =) I thought about using the Styrofoam balls, but was worried about it holding up over time especially to the moisture of the stain dyed flowers!! So when I came across the package of three different sized nerf  balls I knew they would be perfect and they were only $4.99 for the set because one of the had a huge chunk missing from it which didn't bother me because they were going to get covered up anyway!! My son Beckett (6) sure thought it was FUNNY that I wanted to use balls to make pumpkins out of and I told him he would be shocked once I got done!! =)
So I then cut a piece of canvas large enough to cover the ball and with enough excess on top to create my stem!!  I then dyed the canvas using my Distress Stains in Spiced Marmalade, Rusty Hinge and Tea Dye!! I used my craft mat and pressed a large puddle of each color onto my mat and mixed them altogether and then added alittle water and once my canvas was sprayed with water to make it wet I ran it through the mixture of stain until it was complete covered!! I then range in out and the dried it and repeated this process until I got the color I wanted!! Once it was dry I then wrapped my ball and used a rubber band at top to hold it together kinda creating a pony tail!! I then started creating my flowers!! I wanted a layered look and after playing around with it I decided to layer each of the flowers with a felt back and a canvas front which I stamped with a stamp from Tim's Attic Treasures stamp set using archival jet black ink!! I then hand stitches the large flower together (6 sets). I then layered the next size flower ontop again with a felt back and stamped canvas front!! Then the smallest flower in the same layer!! I had spaces in between the large flowers once I had them on my ball and needed to create a small flower layer to fill in those spaces (10sets) so using the small flower and the tiny flower repeating the same layers I used them to fill in the open spaces!!  I wanted them to all be the same orange color so I repeated the same process I used when dying the large canvas piece to cover the ball!! While they were wet I attached them to my ball using stick pins and then let then dry to the shape of the ball!! =) I wanted to add something to the centers of the flowers and after trying several things (Tim's Button, Metal pieces, word stickers) I finally decided on the hitch post screws!! I used hot glue to attach them right over the stick pins and I really LOVE the way it looks!! I then covered the pony tails of canvas ontop of the pumpkin with felt and then I cut out some leaves using the Tattered Leaves Die!! I cut two each from felt and burlap!! I then added some stitching to make them more 3-D and stitched them to the pumpkin!! I wanted some little curly cues so I used some wire and wrapped it around a pencil to create my curly cues and glued them to the leaves!!
I can't wait to finish the rest of my pumpkins, but I wanted to make them all different so I want to play around with them!! I hope to do a video showing how I created it and can't wait to share it with you!! So I hope you are inspired on a way to use the floral die as a holiday decoration!! Here are some photos of my finished Flower Pumpkin!! =)

THANKS SO MUCH for stopping by and have a Fabulous Week!!  =)

COUNTRY HUG-N-KISSES
LARISSA   =)