Miniature Pumpkin Vases

I had quite a fun time yesterday gettin’ my craft on with miniature pumpkins, and now I have five adorable little mini pumpkin flower vases.  I love how these little guys look.  They’re like little tiny packages of happiness.

I got a package of six (real) mini pumpkins for about six dollars at the grocery store, and then turned them into vases by cutting a hole in the tops, cleaning out all of the stringy, seedy insides, and drying it as much as I could with a paper towel…

…and then I used small milk cartons…

…and using a knife, I cut it down to fit into the pumpkin…

…and then shoved it into the pumpkin…

And voila!  A pumpkin vase! (You could also use a votive or an actual tiny vase.  I liked this idea because I could cut it to any height.)

For the Epsom salt and glitter pumpkins, I first applied a layer of Mod Podge to the entire pumpkin…

…and then gave it a little Epsom salt (or glitter) bath…

I got the idea of using Epsom salt from several projects I’ve seen on Pinterest, and because I’ve never really paid attention to what Epsom salt looks like (but I’ve sugared fruit in the past), I wasn’t really sure why Epsom salt was any different from using sugar.

Turns out that Epsom salt looks quite a bit different from sugar!  Sugar is a smaller granule.  Epsom salt is larger with more jagged and faceted shapes.  The light plays off of it really beautifully.

And while I’m generally not a “glitter” type of person—especially the crazy colors or the coarsely-cut glitters—I really do love using this colorless, translucent, fine glitter for certain projects…

The painted pumpkin, which just might be my favorite, was simply sprayed with flat white spray paint, and then lightly sanded…

Of course, you could leave it solid white as well, but I really like these bits of orange showing through…

For the fabric pumpkin, I simply cut thin strips of fabric (I actually cut them in half again after taking this picture so that they would be reeeaaaallly thin and easier to work with), and then used Mod Podge to adhere the strips to the pumpkin…

I had to work in sections on this one, covering about 1/3 of the pumpkin, and then letting it dry, then covering the next 1/3, and letting it dry, etc.

And the last one I left au naturale.

There are about a million other ways you could decorate these little pumpkins.  I’ve been so inspired by all of the creative pumpkin decorating I’ve seen this year!  And I think any one of these would look great on a Thanksgiving table.  I can just imagine about 7 to 9 of them being used as a centerpiece, displayed at varying heights on candlesticks, or mixed in with candles.

While I would probably only choose one type to use for a centerpiece on a Thanksgiving table, I have to admit that seeing these different pumpkins together just makes me smile.

Aren’t tiny pumpkins just adorable?!