Fall is my favorite season so most of my traditions are settled in fall time. I would say our absolute favorite activity is our yearly glitter pumpkins. This year was our 9th year. I’ve certainly done some “tweaks” to make it better each year. I saw it on Martha Stewart’s tv show in 2005, and she was just doing a simple gold glitter pumpkin. I had a 2 year old and 1 year old at the time so we got out a glass dish and tried to do a glitter craft indoors. Big mistake! I think I still was finding random glitter a year later.

Fast forward nine years and I’ve added two more kids to the mix, we now do about 20-25 glitter pumpkins with all kinds of designs and in every shade of glitter you could imagine. Every year the trick-or-treaters comment on how awesome our pumpkins are and ask me a host of questions. It’s all very simple. You need: pumpkins, elmers glue and glitter. That’s it. I always buy my glue when they’re doing the back to school sales because we typically use 4 full containers of it and maybe a couple glue sticks as well. I buy my glitter at Wal-Mart because it’s only $2.97 and you get a pretty large container of it so I can buy lots of glitter and not stress about my 3 year old dumping way more then she needs onto the driveway. I found a bunch of the mini glitter tubes in Target clearance bin for 20 cents this year so that was nice.

Step One: Glitter pumpkin day is usually around the first or second weekend in October, but it must be on a good day. No rain. We sit in the driveway where we can be as messy as we want and the glitter can be blown away later with a leaf blower.

Step Two: If you are doing an all over glitter then apply Elmers and spread with a brush or your finger. Some years I have brushes and this year I forgot. Oh well…maybe I’ll remember for our 10th year 🙂 But apply a good coat but not so thick it runs down the sides because then your glitter will shift.

Step Three: Pick it up by the steam and rotate a good glittering all over and let it dry. That’s it. So simple and fun. Now you have a pumpkin that looks like an apple. We also do green steams too.

In the Target clearance bin I also found tubes of glitter glue for 20 cents so I did a nod to Chanel for my couture pumpkin. Lol

Some of our finished pumpkins. This year we did a chevron too – used a glue stick to draw on the chevron and then added glitter per stripe. They’re not perfect but I don’t do crafts with the purpose of it coming out flawless. I like fun and easy. If I’ve spending too much time for it to be perfect then it’s not fun. And really I want my kids to have fun and I don’t tell them how it should look. Tip: make sure your pumpkins are on a covered porch away from direct rain or the glitter will wash off in places.