DIY Halloween Pumpkin Wreath Tutorial

I am so excited today to be sharing my DIY Halloween Pumpkin Wreath Tutorial with you! You’ll take a plain grapevine wreath and spray paint it a fun color, add a contrasting color for the jack-o-lantern face, and then top it off with glittered floral picks, polka dot ribbon or curly pipe cleaners for the stem.

Use them for a Halloween party, kids craft, school fall festival, front yard Halloween decoration, teacher appreciation celebration, or just keep them inside for yourself!!

If you love these pumpkin wreaths, try my DIY Wreath Signs Using Cake Boards Tutorial.*

Aren’t they so fun? Let’s get to it!!

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DIY HALLOWEEN PUMPKIN WREATH TUTORIAL

I made these pumpkin wreaths several years ago for our neighborhood Halloween Fall Festival, and have been excited to show you how to make your own!

You can make just one pumpkin, a little family set like our’s, or even smaller wreaths (perfect for students or kiddos).

All of the supplies were purchased at Hobby Lobby, Home Depot, and Target. These supplies are for FOUR wreaths…. just wanted to mention that.

SUPPLIES:

4 Grapevine Wreaths: 24 inch, 18 inch, Pair 10 inch wreaths
3 Spray Paint Colors GLOSS: Turquoise (Seaside), Purple (Grape), Lime Green *(Tropical Leaf)*
**3 Table Covers**: Orange, Blue, & Lime Green
Black Felt – Self Adhesive
Black Felt – Glitter/Glimmer
Glitter Picks – ***Turquoise (2)***, Lime Green (2), Purple (2)
Mesh Tubing – Lime Green & Purple
Pipe Cleaner – Orange & Black
Purple Dot Sheet 2.5″ Ribbon
Glue Gun/Sticks
Plastic Dropcloth
Scotch Indoor Mounting Tape – for non-adhesive felt
Scissors and/or Fabric Scissors
Black Marker or Sharpie
White Chalk and Black Pen – for felt stencils
Needle Nose Pliers – for cutting glitter picks

*NOTE* I used Tropical Leaf for the green spray paint, but Key Lime is very similar. My Home Depot was out of Key Lime, so I found Tropical Leaf at Target.

**NOTE** I made these with brighter burlap fabric colors years ago. So you can exchange the plastic table covers with fabric if you want – it works too.

***NOTE***I only used one of the turquoise glitter curly stems – just a fyi. But it’s always good to have a pair (you might want to use it for your wreaths).

Who’s ready for the tutorial with step-by-step instructions??!! Let’s go 🙂

6 STEPS: PUMPKIN WREATH TUTORIAL

STEP 1 – SPRAY PAINT WREATHS

Spray paint both sides of all four wreaths. Make sure to get paint on the insides, outsides, and into the grooves.

Let the wreaths dry about 30 minutes before flipping over to paint the back side, and let dry 24 hours before moving on to the next step.

Before:

After:

STEP 2 – PLANNING FACE COLORS & STEM COLORS

This is the time to plan out which table cover colors and stem colors will go onto each pumpkin. You might want to switch out some of the colors for your own custom look.

Here is how I planned mine.

You can always just skip step 5 (omit the jack-o-lantern faces) and leave these as pumpkin wreaths too.

Just have fun with it!!

STEP 3 – TRACE & CUT TABLE COVERS

Lay out your table cover, place your wreath on it, and trace with a black marker.

***TIP*** When using the table covers – double them up for added thickness (keep them 2-PLY).

Trace your wreath on the outer side with a black marker.

If you can’t do a complete circle (because of the twigs poking out), just connect the black circle after you remove your wreath.

Here is what they will look like.

And they won’t be perfect circles – since you are tracing the perimeter of the irregular-shaped wreaths.

Cut the table covers.

Woohoo!! Now you can begin to visualize what your wreaths will actually look like!!

Why 2-Ply? 2 Reasons:

It adds thickness and protection- against twigs poking through and hot glue burns.
It also adds more color depth (makes it darker) and provides contrast- so that the the jack-o-lantern faces stand out more.

(1-Ply LEFT below) and (2-Ply RIGHT below)

***TIP*** Make sure to double up when using fabric also, or use curtain lining fabric.

When I made these wreaths with burlap fabric the first time around, I doubled it up to make it brighter also. It will make a huge difference.

Wouldn’t these look so cute with lights behind them, peeking through? I’ll have to look into some fun wreath lighting ideas!!

STEP 4 – HOT GLUE TABLE COVER TO WREATH

***NOTE*** This part should be done by adults or older kiddos. Hot glue can get very hot! This is also where the 2-Ply comes in handy.

Turn you wreath over (back side or side not as pretty). You will add the hot glue in small sections to the WREATH ONLY.

Then lay your table cover on top, pull it to keep it tight, and gently press down.

***TIP*** This will be the trickiest part of the tutorial. I recommend laying your table cover on top of the wreath (for correct spacing), and then just lift the portion up that you will be hot gluing down.

Once the table cover sticks to the wreath, it will adhere quickly and begin to melt. So, it’s best to have it in place as much as you can.

You will have extra table cover remaining on the outer edge of the wreath. Just cut off the excess portion.

If you’re second PLY doesn’t automatically adhere, just add a little extra glue to the first ply.

STEP 5 – DRAW, TRACE, CUT, & ATTACH JACK-O-LANTERN FACES

For this part, I just drew my faces by hand on a piece of copy paper. Then I cut those out to use as patterns for tracing onto my felt pieces.

I found some of my jack-o-lantern face ideas on pinterest – if you want to add your own style.

Once I had my paper jack-o-lantern stencils cut out, I laid my stencils down on my pumpkins first (just for sizing concerns).

***TIP*** The larger jack-o-lantern wreaths will have larger faces, and the smaller jack-o-lantern wreaths will have smaller faces.

I used a self adhesive black felt sheet (love this!) and then a glitter felt sheet (non-adhesive backing) to make the faces.

The glitter just added a little sparkle, and it made me happy – LOL!!

Use different felt colors to customize your look – if you want. Just make sure to use a contrasting color.

Now, trace your paper stencils onto your felt sheets, and cut the felt pieces out.

Turn your felt sheets onto the BACK SIDE. Use white chalk to trace stencils on non-adhesive felt, and a black pen for the self-sticking black felt.

Then cut out all of the stencils.

After you have cut out all of the felt stencils, place them onto your pumpkins to plan out where you want to put them.

***TIP*** Stand your pumpkin up, and see where it “NATURALLY STANDS.” This will help so that when you lay it down, you can put your stencils on in the center.

Otherwise your FACE will sit CROOKED on your pumpkin. Trust me on this!!

Now, take the adhesive backing off your felt and attach it to your pumpkin. And cut your mounting tape, adhere it to the felt piece, and attach it to your pumpkin.

Getting ready for the last step!! Almost finished!!

STEP 6 – PUT PUMPKIN STEM ON

This is where you can kind of create your own unique stem – using the glitter curly picks, purple ribbon, pipe cleaners and mesh tubing.

Take your curly glitter stem, and cut about 2/3’s up using your needle nose pliers.

Now, stick that stem into the grapevine “twigs” and bend stem wire to attach to the wreath.

Start with these glitter spiral picks first to make your “base” of the stem. Now you’ll be able to add onto it – for your own personal “poofi-ness” (don’t think that’s a real word – haha)!!

Make the pipe cleaners curly by twirling them onto a pencil or pen. Then simply slide it into the wreath vines, and pinch it to attach to wreath.

I just tucked these into random spots where I needed a little punch of color.

And then make mesh tubing “bows” by bunching it up, and securing with an extra pipe cleaner.

Just make several of these mesh “bows” to help fill out the top portion of the wreath.

I used a purple mesh bow for the large blue pumpkin, and 2 lime green mesh bows for each of the smaller pumpkins.

Then I finished all of the wreaths with the purple polka dot sheer ribbon, to make large bows.

To get the ribbon to stay put, I slid a piece under the wreath “vines” and tied a knot first. Then I made a separate bow, and tied the bow with this ribbon (that was attached to wreath).

I left the ribbons long so that I could wrap them into the vine sides of the wreath.