Concrete Pumpkin Project ~

Summer is fading into fall so it's time for mums, football and of course pumpkins! I've made hypertufa-concrete orbs in the past and thought pumpkins would be a fun little project as well ~ cheap plastic treat pumpkins make great molds!

I gathered my supplies...hypertufa-concrete is a mix or peat moss, perlite & cement most recipes call for portland cement I used vinyl concrete patching cement I had left over from another project ~ I also added some cement color additive because I didn't want my finished pumpkins to be cement gray...

I mixed up my ingredients and added some color ~ my mix was approximately 2 parts concrete to 1 part each of the peat moss & perlite ~ I added enough water to make a thick cottage cheese type texture...

I covered the hole in the bottom with a piece of duct tape, sprayed the inside of my pumpkins with cooking spray to keep the mixture from sticking and filled them to the top...I used rail road spikes for stems I pushed them right down the center, the mix was thick enough to hold them upright while they dried...

I set them aside to dry for a few days and then got to work on removing the plastic pumpkin molds ~ I used a utility knife to slice down the sides and then pealed them right off...

Jack-o-lantern side for Halloween...

Turned around they work right through Thanksgiving!

3 of 46 questions

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Madonna Burke Thines
on Oct 28, 2018
What else could you use instead of concrete? Plaster of Paris or something similar? Thanks.
1
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- Diana Wearing
  on Oct 29, 2018
  
  I’ve never used Plaster of Paris, not sure it would be as durable as concrete but it might work.
Brian
on Nov 6, 2018
How much material did it take to make one pumpkin
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Roki Hi
on Nov 6, 2018
How about making it lighter by putting a large, styrofoam craft ball in the middle? It’d be a heck of a lot cheaper.
1
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- Diana Wearing
  on Nov 8, 2018
  Good Idea!

4 of 267 comments

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Brenda
on Oct 30, 2018
Brilliant!
1
- Diana Wearing
  on Oct 30, 2018
  Thank you!
Sheilah Robinett Kearney
on Nov 7, 2018
Would be great to make them hollow and then you could add floral arrangement to them!
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- Daye Ware
  on Jan 17, 2019
  Just put any plastic container that will fit inside (maybe a large cottage cheese container) and will hold your flowers into the concrete. Spray the outside of the container with Pam first for easy removal. You will need to weight it with something to keep it from floating up out of the concrete.