Pumpkins and Pinecones

Who would think that pumpkins and pine cones would go together? Certainly not me, until recently when I started brainstorming about pumpkin and pine cone crafting for fall. It seems that there is a shortage of pumpkins this year due to the extreme weather conditions, this past summer. Everything from the pumpkins themselves to canned pumpkin is in short supply...although you can find a plethora of  imaginative faux pumpkins...that's where I come in. I love my little folk art pumpkins, so sweet and be-ribboned in vintage fabrics. Then there are the plump and plushy ones--my favorites!  They look especially delicious all decked out in the colors of the season with real, dried pumpkin or gourd stems giving them "autumnal attitude."  

Plushy Pumpkins

Folk Art Pumpkins

A couple of years ago I accidentally happened upon the most exquisite of velveteen pumpkins that a person could happen upon, bought two for myself and then searched furiously for more of them. When I actually did find them again in a store up in Pennsylvania, their price was something akin to our national deficit. As captivating as they were in plush "autunmny" colors, I thought it best to pay my mortgage instead and settled for two I already had instead of oh, let's see, another twenty or so.  Then, decided I would try to interpret them in my own way....Voila!

The challenge being, finding the right pumpkin or gourd stem as the crowning touch. You should see the looks I get while fishing through to the bottom of a pumpkin bin in the produce section of the grocery store and coming up with an old dried stem that will look just perfect while passing up some of the prettiest of natural pumpkin fare. One lady thanked me after she patiently waited for me to pull out more pumpkins from the bottom of the bin for her to choose from.  she thought it was a bit odd that I was only interested in the old dried stems already detached from pumpkins and laying at the bottom of the pile. However, one lady's trash is another lady's treasure!

And, then there is the lovely pine cone. That purveyor of all things possible when it comes to glitter and, when it comes to glitter, I know of where I speak. When it comes to pine cones...well, I have talked about my love affair with pine cones many times before. This year, however, my relationship with the fair one took on a new twist when a friend at Peter's office, Marissa, gave him jumbo-sized cones she had collected thinking I might like them....Like?...What, is she kidding?...That would be an understatement! Out came the glitter and I spent an afternoon creating pine cone magic.  I tried very hard to contain myself since Peter thinks I use some colors that are in his estimation, "a little different," but, I just couldn't resist the temptation and I pulled out pink, blue, copper and pewter tinted glitter to work with.

Then, I discovered a can of Christmas Tree flocking tucked away on the spray paint shelf so I just had to try that, too.  I flocked a pine cone and then sprinkled glitter lightly over them and it was just beautiful. So, of course, I had to do a few more of those as well.  I am a glitter genius! The flocking adds another dimension to these already pieces of art only Mother Nature is capable of creating...I'm just enhancing them a bit. Good grief!...Even my shoes somehow couldn't resist the allure of glitter.

Flocked and glittered pine cone

When it comes to crafting, pumpkins and pine cones certainly do have a lot in common. Both lend themselves to the beauty of the changing seasons and are everlasting adornments in this "DIYer's"  heart.  Now, since I have a little glitter left, and I'm already in the glitter/crafting zone, where did I put those magnolia seed pods?...