Well, we've already started with the Christmas festivities here on LVC but I still have one more Halloween project to share!! I hope you won't mind 😊

Remember the Vintage Thanksgiving Vignette that I made with my grandma's antique clock and my vintage Thanksgiving Gurley candles? (No? 😲 Be sure to take a peek, I think you'll love it!)

I also have a few Halloween Gurley candles so I decided to make another little display with them!

DIY Pumpkin Diorama

I had this faux pumpkin already, I think I found it at Goodwill (if you want to make one of these for next year, now is a good time to check out your local thrift stores, I see these pumpkins often and they will be cheap right now!)

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Supplies needed to make your own:

For the pumpkin diorama base:

Foam pumpkin (I found mine at Goodwill but there is a precut version HERE)
Moss sheet (I found mine at the dollar store)
Fairy lights
Orange craft paint
Hot glue
Utility knife

For the accessories:

Polymer clay (orange, green, brown)
Wooden ice cream spoon (large popsicle sticks would work too)
Craft paint (grey, black)
White 4" bottle brush trees (or already colored ones!)
Food coloring

When choosing the pumpkin you will use, make sure it is hollow and not made of super-hard plastic, these carvable craft pumpkins are more like foam covered with plastic.

To begin, draw out the shape you will cut-out. I wanted mine to look like a jack-o-lantern so I drew a really large mouth and two little triangle eyes. You want the opening to be large enough to allow you to place your miniatures inside easily and be able to see them easily.

Use a utility knife to carefully cut out the opening.

Paint it orange if you wish.

To cover the bottom I used a moss sheet I found at the dollar store.

Cut the moss sheet into a circle to fit the bottom of the pumpkin.

Use hot-glue to adhere it inside the pumpkin.

Now that you have your pumpkin diorama base done you can move on to the miniatures you'll use inside! You can purchase miniatures already made or if you prefer you can make a few things like trees, pumpkins, and tombstones, I'll show you how!

I had some bleached bottle brush trees that I wanted to use but I wanted them to be colored for Halloween. If you're starting with green trees, there are lots of tutorials for bleaching them on Pinterest 😉

I used regular food coloring to dye mine.

I mixed the red and yellow colors to get orange and made a little dye bath in an old cup.

Then I dipped my trees in it.

I left them sitting upright for several hours and then turned them upside down and left them overnight. I was trying to get an ombre effect but it didn't really work out, they just look orange to me.

While my trees were marinating I worked on some little polymer clay pumpkins.

Roll a ball of orange clay in the size you want your pumpkin and then score some lines down the sides with a knife or toothpick.

Press it down on the table so it's flat on the bottom and top and will stand upright.

Then use a flat object (a butter knife will work) and make the sides of the lines rounded for a more natural look.

Now it should look like this.

To make leaves for your pumpkins, roll a little ball of green clay, press it flat, and pinch it with your fingers to form a leaf shape. Make a line down the center.

Make curly tendrils by rolling a skinny rope of clay and wrapping it around a toothpick. Slide it right off the toothpick and onto the pumpkin top. Just press the end down onto the pumpkin so it will stick when you bake it.

Finally, make a pumpkin stem by rolling a ball of brown clay and then rolling it into a log. Stand the log upright and smash it down to the size you want. Add that and the leaves to the pumpkins and bake according to the package directions.

Now let's make some mini tombstones! You'll need some wooden ice cream spoons (or large popsicle sticks would work).

Use a utility knife to cut them. You'll need a square base for each tombstone.

Paint them with grey paint and then dry brush them with black paint. To dry brush, dip a dry paintbrush just barely into the paint. You only want to get the very ends, then wipe it a couple times on a paper towel. Lightly brush it over your piece.

Glue the headstone to the base and they will look like this.

I painted the letters on mine but you can use a paint marker too. I also added some moss.

My trees didn't have bases so I used a cork to make bases for them. I just cut a slice of cork and painted it black then stuck the wire tree base into the cork!