Mummified Pumpkin Jars

These are really quick and easy to make!!

 

 

 

 

 I have eight teachers to keep in mind
for Halloween, so I've been
trying to come up with something
inexpensive, but still fun and appealing.

I had a few little fake pumpkins
left over from my fall craft bazaar last year.
I purchased the stretchy gauze,
and I had the canning jars on hand
(an impulse buy - because I thought the
size was really cute and fun, and I
knew I'd find something to make with them!)
And of course, googly eyes.
I have loads of those.
I was able to weed through the kids'
Halloween crafts from last year, and I
found one orange spider ring.
I will be purchasing more from OTC -
of the black variety. ;)

This photo drives me flat crazy.
Let me explain why.
I spray painted the jar rings
with a super fun green spray paint.
Then I left them to dry.
When I came back, the wind had
blown up a corner of the blanket and
the jar rings looked like this.
I tried to recreate the perfect spacing
I had between each ring ...
... and that's when I realized they were
still wet.  In 110 degree heat.
After ten minutes.
So I looked at the can.
"Dries to the touch in 2 to 4 hours"
UGH!!!

So now I can't touch the rings
to move them back into their perfect
spacing on the blanket,
which poses two issues for me.
One, I am obsessive compulsive and I
REALLY wanted the rings to be
in perfect alignment,
and B, who in the world wants to wait
2 to 4 hours to touch their
painted surface??  Immediate Gratification,
that's what I'm about.
Oh, well.

Since I planned to fill the jars with
unwrapped candies, I wanted to keep the
canning jar lids unpainted,
and as "untouched" as possible.
What can I say.  I'm a germaphobe.

At first, I used scissors to cut a slit in
the gauze for the pumpkins stem.
Then, I realized I could just push the
stem through the gauze.

Pull and stretch the gauze as you
wrap the pumpkin ... the
result is much nicer than if you loosely
wrap the gauze.  Trust me ;)

Loosely wrapped.
No likey so much.

After wrapping the pumpkins in gauze,
I used one giant circle punch
and one large scalloped punch to
make tags for the tops of the jars.
I had 2 to 4 hours to kill, after all.

 I used Aleene's Tacky Glue to
attach one big and one small googly eye.
I like the lopsided look of this.
Isn't it just so cute???
(Is the lopsided look sort of contradictory to
my usual OCD tendencies?? huh)

By the way ... 
DO NOT attach the mummified
pumpkins to the lids
until AFTER you've filled the jars.

Wanna know why??

Because the rings won't fit over the
mummified pumpkins.


Resulting in a CRAFT FAIL.

Personally, I suggest you fill your jars with
something tasty, THEN put the lids on the jars;
followed by the jar rings, and finally,
use hot glue to attach
your little mummified pumpkins to the
paper-covered jar lids.

Remember that orange spider ring I was
yammering on about?
Well, I pulled out my trusty-rusty pliers
and snipped the "ring" right off.

And then I used hot glue to attach
the spider to the top of my pumpkin mummy.

Hmm.  I think I like the orange spider,
but a BLACK spider would be
really super creepy!!  So I'm ordering some.
Enough for next year.  Who KNOWS
what use I'll find for black plastic spider rings
next year!  Am I right?? 


Peace and Plastic Spider Rings