Fall Topiary

I used my day off today to set out some of my fall decor. I absolutely love everything about fall, from the weather to the colors and holidays (Thanksgiving is my favorite). I also used some time to create a new piece of decor to add to my growing collection of fall items.
Last year around this time I saw some pumpkin topiaries in blogland (specifically from a post by Michelle at From House to Home) that I absolutely fell in love with. We were living at my in-laws and in the process of moving, so the topiaries were not a priority at the time. The other day while reading the paper I came across the Michael's ad and saw that all the faux pumpkins were 40% of and decided that I needed to make the topiaries. I ran out and bought 3 different sized pumpkins for a total of $25. I knew I could have saved a little more if I waited for them to not be on sale and used a 50% off coupon, which is why I only bought one set. I plan on making another one to have one on each side of my front door. The next day I cleaned up a terra cota planter that I had in the garage:

I then pulled out my scrapbooking supplies and cut some circles out of contact paper in 3 different sizes. I stuck the circles randomly around the pot so that it would appear polka dotted after spray painting.


I painted the planter and while it dried, I worked on preparing the pumpkins. I cut the tops out of the two pumpkins for the bottom so that they could sit flat on top of each other. I used a regular kitchen knife and cut right around the stem in order to leave most of the pumpkin intact.

I then put hot glue around the top of the biggest pumpkin and placed the medium sized pumpkin on top. I repeated that process to attach the smallest pumpkin to the top. I then affixed some black scrapbooking stickers to the fronts of the pumpkins to spell out, "Boo!"

When my planter was dry, I removed the contact paper circles to reveal my polka dotted planter. I placed the pumpkins inside the planter and attached a ribbon around the stem of the top pumpkin. Love it!

Unfortunately, I decided to add some sand to the bottom of the planter to weight it down a little (there has been an unbelievable wind over the past 2 days and thought it would blow over and break). While carrying the planter back inside after filling it, I only had ahold of it with one hand. The weight was too much and the planter crumbled in my hands:( I was unable to photograph it in it's rightful spot by my front door. The final reveal will have to be made once I finish the second topiary and place them where they belong. Hopefully I will have the rest of my decor up at that time as well!