Make a Man-Eating Plant for Halloween!

10 Materials
$50
10 Hours
Medium

The show, Little Shop of Horrors always makes me think of Halloween, so I decided to create my own “man-eating plant” to greet trick or treaters this year! You can see more of my crafts and creations here.

I began with a small white artificial pumpkin. I didn’t have to use white, but I though it would make it easier to paint. 

My little pumpkins were solid styrofoam. The larger ones were hollow, but all of them were cut nearly in half like above. The insides of both of them got a coat of red acrylic paint.

My pumpkins, both large and small got a outside paint treatment that kind of make them look like little watermelons. 

While trying to paint the inside of my larger pumpkins it helped to prop them open with a stick or in this case, a golf tee.  

I cut white golf tees to the desired size for the teeth in my plants. 

I used an exacto knife to cut a tiny hole for each tooth. I put a tiny bit of hot glue in each hole and then stuck one of my golf tee teeth into each hole.  

For my largest pumpkin I used this metal piece I found near the rebar at the Home Depot. I thought I would just use a piece of rebar, but I felt the large base on this would support my largest plant better. I wrapped the piece in green duct tape. 

I used a large urn for the base. I filled the bottom of the urn with Loctite Tite Foam and styrofoam. I set my metal piece down beneath the styrofoam, anchored in the insulating foam.  

Smaller pumpkins were put on dowels for stems. A little bit of hot glue secured the dowels into the pumpkins and then I painted the dowels.  

It was time to start planting my plant!  

Don’t get too close or you might get bit!  

I would love to have you stop by my blog,   Celebrate & Decorate for the full tutorial as well as sign up for my latest creations, posts, recipes, exclusives, and more...

Resources for this project:
See all materials
Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
Hometalk may collect a small share of sales from the links on this page.More info
Chloe Crabtree
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
Go
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
3 of 8 questions
  • Lucy Marie Bernier Lucy Marie Bernier on Sep 18, 2019

    Great work , to cute, love it ! Did you scoop out some of the styrofoam ?

    To cool, 💲🌲 has a boat load of pumpkins ! Gonna have some fun !

    Thanks ! 👍👍👍👍

  • Cathy Clark-Fitzpatrick Cathy Clark-Fitzpatrick on Sep 18, 2019

    Very cool. And what a great idea to use golf tees as teeth.

  • Andreacaa Andreacaa on Aug 22, 2023

    As a big fan of "Little Shop of Horrors" I LOVE this ♥️

Comments
Join the conversation
4 of 235 comments
  • Lynn Lynn on Mar 22, 2022

    My husband, who loved Halloween, died unexpectedly in July 2020, and although I gave out candy and my daughter & her husband brought my now 11-year old grandson to trick or treat in my neighborhood, I haven’t decorated for Halloween since 2019. I think this might be the year, and I can’t wait to make the man-eating plant..👻

    • Chloe Crabtree Chloe Crabtree on Mar 22, 2022

      I am so happy this is turning things around for you! I hope you make it and have fun displaying it! I know your husband will be smiling down on it!

  • Sheila Bishop Sheila Bishop on Aug 26, 2022

    Love love love this craft!! This was one of my favorite movies growing up and I can’t wait to try this!!

    • Chloe Crabtree Chloe Crabtree on Aug 26, 2022

      Oh Sheila, thank you so very much! I saw a similar one at Michaels for something like $200 and I was NOT going to spend that! It was fun to figure out how to do it with less expensive supplies! Have fun creating! I would love to have you stop by Celebrate & Decorate and see what else I have been up to!

Next