6 Ways to Decorate a Mini Pumpkin

Itching to try your hand at crafted pumpkins? Check out my tutorials on six mini pumpkin decorating ideas — no sewing required!

$15 Top Shelf Clearance Challenge

Note to the Reader: I was invited by some lovely blogger friends (their blogs are listed at the bottom of the post), to be part of a fun clearance challenge. The challenge was to spend no more than $15, on a clearance item(s), and then incorporate the items into our Fall decorating. This challenge would be seemingly easy for me, because I LOVE to buy on clearance, but when faced with a budget and deadline — not so easy. I probably visited 5-7 stores before I finally settled on a project. Here is what I chose:

Mini Pumpkin Decorating with Clearance and Found Items:

I have been admiring all of the beautiful, fabric and DIY pumpkins on Instagram and Pinterest, and wanted to create some for myself. But with limited sewing skills, I decided to challenge myself to decorate some mini pumpkins without spending a ton of time, or fortune on supplies. So I found some items I had on hand, along with some inexpensive items from Dollar Tree and elsewhere, and put together my plan. Here were the items I planned to use that I had to purchase. All of the items I used in this project were $1 or less, and my entire project supplied was under $15:

Dollar tree mini foam pumpkins in bright orange – perfect for my mini pumpkin decorating

This black yarn was at the Goodwill 50 percent off sale, making it only 50 cents

This yarn was in the clearance bin at Meijer for only 99 cents.

Mini Pumpkin #1: Teal sweater pumpkin

For the first pumpkin, I used one of the orange foam pumpkins and a sweater I had on hand from a previous craft. The steps were simple: I just cut the sleeve off of the sweater and stuck the pumpkin inside. Next, I cut the excess sweater off the top and bottom and hot glued the bottom fabric to the pumpkin. I gathered up the top and secured with some string. Finally, I glued a wine cork to the top and wrapped some nautical rope around it to finish it off. Check out the process:

These were the main supplies for this mini pumpkin decorating idea.

After securing the sweater sleeve with hot glue, I used nautical rope and a wine cork for the stem

Here is my final pumpkin on display. I used a natural fabric leaf from Dollar Tree to complete the look. I styled it on a tray with a candle and ceramic and fabric pumpkins from Target, along with one of their mini lighted houses.

Pumpkin #2: Simple Tassel Pumpkin

For the other two foam pumpkins, I painted them black and white. While they were drying, I did this simple craft using the black yarn I purchased. I simply wrapped some yarn around the base of the stem, securing with hot glue, and then made a mini tassel out of 5-6 strings of yarn. You’ll see the final reveal in a bit.

I used a mini pie pumpkin and some black yarn for this easy pumpkin decorating idea.

Pumpkin #3: Mini Yarn Pumpkin

This pumpkin was a little more time consuming, but also easy. I used one of the mini Dollar Tree pumpkins for this craft. I started by working my way up the pumpkin from the bottom, securing the black yarn with hot glue. When I got to the end, I simply wrapped the stem with some green thread I purchased at Dollar Tree.

This was the halfway point of my mini yarn pumpkin

My before and after of my third mini pumpkin decorating idea- black yarn pumpkin

Pumpkin #4: White Lace Pumpkin

For my white lace pumpkin, I did a coat of white paint, using leftover paint I had on hand. I did have to touch up some areas where the orange foam pumpkin showed through. If I had more time, I would’ve done multiple coats. My process for this pumpkin was simple. I wrapped the white lace around the pumpkin and cut it to size, Next, I hot glued it to the pumpkin and gathered it at the top. Finally, I found some jute rope and wrapped it around the stem, and added the same leaf I had on hand to give it some additional interest.

Painting the pumpkin was the first step.

Gluing and securing the lace to the pumpkin was quite easy.

The final product: Easy white lace pumpkin using mostly supplies on hand.

Here I displayed the white lace pumpkin with other pumpkins and candles on my kitchen counter.

Pumpkin #5: Twisted Yarn Pumpkin

I found this DIY mini pumpkin decorating idea on Pinterest. It looked like a simple and easier way to wrap yarn around a pumpkin. Basically, you take four strips of equal length yarn and twist them together. Then you wrap them around the pumpkin lengthwise, and secure with hot glue. I won’t show you all the steps here, but it basically works the same way as my black yarn pumpkin above. Also, I used green mini rope for the stem.

This was the start of the yarn wrapping process. I got a lot of hot glue on my hands and the floor!

My twisted rope pumpkin. I decided not to trim the excess green yarn long at the stem so it would resemble the vine. I love how this yarn has flakes of orange and brown to give it more visual interest. That way if the orange shows through, it doesn’t really matter much.

The twisted yarn pumpkin looks at home against the rustic oranges and tans in this vignette.

Pumpkin #6 Black Yarn Pumpkin

For my final pumpkin, I used the black painted foam pumpkin. Since I was tired of wrapping and gluing yarn, I just wrapped the creases of the pumpkin only with the black yarn for a striped effect. Next I took a feather topper off of an old mini Halloween hat, and glued that to the top of my pumpkin in place of a stem. I think this one is one of my favorites!

Unfortunately I didn’t take many pictures of the process here, because I was getting tired, but this DIY mini pumpkin was pretty easy to create! I love the feathers and the striped look of the yarn. 

The black and orange pumpkins look good together sitting on my side table. I paired my three crafted pumpkins with a few mini crackled ones that I found at Goodwill and a fabric pumpkin.

For your own mini pumpkin decorating ideas …

I had so much fun coming up with this mini pumpkin decorating ideas. However, I wish I would not have been so rushed to complete them in one evening. You may have luck finding craft items around your house, or even clearance items that you could use to come up with your own mini pumpkin decorating ideas. It’s all about being creative and a little resourceful. Thanks for checking out my pumpkin tutorial, and let me know which pumpkin was your favorite in the comments section! For more of my Fall styling, visit my Instagram page or blog page. 

What can you do with clearance items?

Be sure to visit my designer friends’ blogs below, to check out the clearance items that they found, and see how they incorporated them into their Fall decor!

* Farmhouse Fun

* Harper Home Designs

* The Colorful Wings Journal

* Stilettos and Shiplap

* Decorate And More With Tip

* Le Cultivateur