Halloween Inspiration & DIY Pumpkin Topiary Tutorial

Halloween Porch Inspiration

Halloween Inspiration & 

DIY Pumpkin Topiary Tutorial

Halloween is family favorite around here! I love celebrating the mysterious wonder and spooky enchantments! It's dark and it's magical all at the same time. My kids can’t get enough! Their little curious minds break through the unfamiliar scenes. They are perplexed and entertained. I can see their imagination spark and their excitement soars. Ah, love it! Now, I’m not talking guts and gory blood. We are more of your creepy spider, silly skeleton, wicked witch, and spooky Jack o Lantern kind-of-people. My 7 year old LOVES to help me decorate for the holidays, so I thought I’d share our Halloween porch scene he helped come up with! I’ve even included a DIY tutorial for the Pumpkin Topiary (power tool free)! Plus, I’ve put together a list of our favorite October traditions in case there’s a few you’d like to start with your family. 

But first, I hope you enjoy a good scare from my spooky baby ghosts! These creepy ghost costumes were 100% requested by my boys. So, my mom got busy on her sewing machine, I applied the face paint, and we had some fun with my sister-in-law, Jessica Reeves Photography. This was Halloween 2016, and for 2 and 5 years old, I'd say the boys nailed it!

Kohen Age 5, and Brody Age 2 // Halloween 2016

Traditions

Some of my favorite childhood memories are from Halloween! My mom and aunt (we were very close with our cousins) always made October so festive. The decorations were so much fun. I remember yummy ghost cookies and the best handmade costumes! I’m pretty sure we celebrated all month long and hit up every pumpkin patch around. Now that I’m a mom, it’s really special to share the Halloween traditions with my children!

• On October 1st, we kick off the month putting up our Halloween decorations. I give the boys Halloween shirts and a fun, festive book!
• We visit Pumpkin patches, Corn Mazes and the Fair!
• I take Fall goodies into the kids classes.
• Our neighborhood plays “You’ve Been Boo-ed!”
• My parents dinner and a Halloween scavenger hunt for all the grand kids.
• My In-Laws usually get the family together for chili and a bonfire.
• We paint pumpkins!
• A few days before Halloween, we carve our pumpkin and make homemade pumpkin muffins from the “guts" inside. Not really, we use the actual pumpkin from the face and top that are cut out when carving. I’ll post my recipe when we make them this year!
• On Halloween, I make a crock pot of white chicken chili, recipe here! It's nice to have dinner ready to go when you have small children. It takes a while to get them ready to Trick-or-Treat! Plus, the kids are so excited I can hardly get my ONE family picture!

Front Porch Inspo!

Ya'll, I love how our Halloween decor came together, and I have my boys to thank! Last Fall, my husband built this really pretty planter bench for our front porch. So, the kids and I decided we HAD to have a skeleton for it. We shopped around and found the best skeleton deal ($44) on Amazon. He’s sturdy, 5’ tall, and you can pose him! My oldest came up with the idea for the skeleton to hold the basket of creepy pumpkins. Believe it or not, I did not make the wreath. I found this wreath on clearance for $12 several years ago before starting my Wreath Company. The kids love the bugs, snake, and eyeballs! I figure I'll just keep on rocking this boy mom gig. The kids had to have lots of spooky, festive lights, like this glowing spider and pillow that we found at At Home. Our last piece of decor is the pumpkin topiary! I'm really happy with how it turned out and the kids LOVE that all of our pumpkins glow! Below you'll find my DIY tutorial for the stacked pumpkin topiary!

DIY Pumpkin Topiary Tutorial 

(Power Tool Free!)

I've been wanting a Pumpkin Topiary on our porch for years! So this year I was determined to make one. But, as handy as my husband is, I am not a power tools kind of girl. For starters, I couldn't figure out how to switch the drill bit in either of our two drills. Moving on, I know it would have been easier to wait on my hubby to get home, but he was out of town. So, my sweet mom came over to offer a few suggestions and I got it figured out. It was so easy I just had to share! Here’s my drill-free, DIY Pumpkin Topiary Tutorial.

1. You’ll need a planter. I’m using the one we already have on our porch. I took the plant out and moved it indoors for the winter.
2. You’ll need to create a shallow platform to support your pumpkins. A spare baking pan fit my planter well.
3. Spread your florals and moss around your bottom support. Make sure to cover the sides.
4. Gather your pumpkins. You can use the $1 plastic pumpkin carriers if you want them to double as planters. I thought it would be cool to have black snakes coming out of them! But, I ended up going with the $6 Light Up Jack o Lanterns, since that’s what the kids like! Glad I did too, because the lights look great at night and the pumpkins match the rest of our decor really well. I chose a few different facial expressions to make it fun! TIP: They all have different shaped stalks so make sure to choose pumpkins with a tall, skinny stalk. You can use the fattest stalk for the pumpkin on top. Important! Decide on the order of your pumpkins before you start cutting!
5. Grab your tools. I picked needle nose pliers and a pair of pruning sheers that actually worked great!
6. On the bottom of your pumpkins, there is a small hole. Use the needle nose pliers to make a bigger hole. Just clamp down tight and work the hole wider in the direction of the seem. Then, use your cutting tool to cut along the seam until the hole is large enough, giving you a 2" slit or so. Once you have a 2” slit, use needle nose to widen the slit by pulling on the plastic.
7. Next, cut a perpendicular slit with your cutting tool and widen the gap with your needle nose until your hole is large enough for a pumpkin stem.
8. Stack your pumpkins and adjust your moss underneath to help balance them if needed.
9. I placed a power strip under the moss to plug in the pumpkins. If you allow your plug to rest on your support, the weight of the cords won't tilt your stack.

DIY Pumpkin Topiary Tutorial

Last but not least, I have to give a SHOUT OUT to my sweet boys for their creative Halloween vibes this year!