Spooky Halloween Terrarium

Spooky Pumpkin Silhouette // thepapermama.com Spooky Pumpkin Silhouette // thepapermama.com

Ok. I know. It’s not even September and I’m sharing a Halloween DIY. I swear: there will not be any other mention of Halloween until the end of September (promise). Buuut, Michaels sent me some foam pumpkins and I got inspired. So yeah. Hello Halloween DIY. Ha!

I created a Spooky Halloween Terrarium with this pumpkin. Comes with a little spooky home and crazy/wild bats. It’s intense. Perfect for Halloween 2013.

Here’s what you need to make this:

– A foam pumpkin from the Michaels

– Green floral foam

– Moss

– Wire

– Hot glue

– X-acto Knife

– Wire cutters

– Scissors

– A couple toothpicks

How I did it:

– Use an X-acto knife to cut a hole out of the front of your pumpkin. I cut about an 8 inch hole (I freehand cut, but you could use a pencil to mark out the hole before cutting).

– Optional: to get a bit more light into your pumpkin, cut a small section in the back (I cut the hole so it was not visible when looking through the front hole). I did this because the pumpkin is flammable and I didn’t really want to put any sort of heat source in or around it.

Spooky Pumpkin Silhouette // thepapermama.com

– Place a small piece of green floral foam in the bottom of your pumpkin.

– Put a layer of moss at the bottom (over the green floral foam) for the “ground cover”.

– Cut out a spooky house from my printable. Hot glue a couple of toothpicks to the back of the home. Push the home/toothpicks into the green floral foam.

– Press your branch into the green foam, behind the tree.

– Cut out a few of my bats from the printable (don’t worry about cutting these out perfectly, I didn’t). Gently fold the bat in half (so they look like they’re flying).

::click on image below + right click + save::

Spooky Halloween Terrarium // thepapermama.com

– Cut out a couple bits of wire and hot glue the bats onto these wires.

Spooky Pumpkin Silhouette // thepapermama.com

– Arrange the wired bats around the interior of the pumpkin. You can push the wire INTO the foam part of the pumpkin, or have them flying up from the “grass” by pressing the wire into the green floral foam.

Spooky Pumpkin Silhouette // thepapermama.com Spooky Pumpkin Silhouette // thepapermama.com

Enjoy! Side note: you can place this pumpkin near a lamp to get a wee bit of light into the back for a creepy nighttime glow. Just remember, pumpkin flammable.

– Chelsey

This post was brought to you by, 

Make Your Day // makeyourdaydiy.com

P.S. these pumpkins were sent to me, free of charge, from Michaels


26 comments

  • Madison on said:

    wow this is a really amazing and creative idea! I’m sooo going to try this this year!

  • Angela (Life in Velvet) on said:

    What a lovely and creative idea! And, even better, you can use it again next year! Thanks for sharing!

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  • ColleenB. on said:

    Oh, I absolutely love thins and what a clever idea.
    I think when I make mine I will put one of those small battery lit votive candles (bought at Michaels) in behind just to give it alittle glow inside. (can buy several battery candles in a package)
    I use and always have several on hand of those battery operated lights just for fun projects like this.
    Thanks for the tutorial
    ColleenB.
    Texas

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  • Jenny on said:

    This is awesome! When I try one, I think I'll put a mini battery-operated votive somewhere behind the spooky house…. 🙂

    • Jess on said:

      This would be especially cool if you cut out the upper window of the house with your X-acto knife. Spooky light in the attic!

  • Wendy on said:

    This is seriously cool! So very clever! I say, if there's Christmas stuff in stores in July, well then us Halloween lovers can start now!! (We bought a pumpkin yesterday!)

  • Libby on said:

    This is so so lovely I want it to be Halloween right now. But hey…I still have a Christmas terrarium so I can totally do this right now too!

  • Heather on said:

    This is so cute even though I don't want to think about Halloween yet..still in summer mode for another week……… I'm pinning it!

      • Heather on said:

        Ok, I'm ready to think about this now. Off to Michael's! Thanks for the printable, my dear! I think I have everything else BUT the pumpkin!

  • manasmith on said:

    This is genius, I think I'm going to make this for with my son for Halloween. It's his (and mine!) favorite holiday.

    Mana
    Fashion and Happy Things

  • jamie@eighteen25 on said:

    this is seriously the cutest pumpkin i have ever seen!! i LOVE it.

    • The Paper Mama on said:

      Thanks! Glad I didn't scare you away with my early halloween post. 😉

  • Carrie @carrieloves on said:

    Adorable, this is such a great alternative to having mushy pumpkins after a week or so! Thanks for sharing

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