Do you love making velvet or fabric pumpkins but have difficulty finding stems? Me too! Real pumpkin stems are a premium.
You can find them on places like eBay and Etsy, but be prepared to pay.
If you're lucky enough to live close to a pumpkin patch, ask if you can pick of some and I'm sure there is a YouTube video on how to clean and dry them. You can find ANYTHING on YouTube right? Right!
And since Halloween is just around the corner, call on your friends, to save the stems for you. They may think you are a little bit crazy, but if they know you....they will understand.
In the meantime, we researched a video on YouTube of course and watch some folks making pumpkin stems out of Air Dry Clay. It looked like fun! So we had to try it.
You can watch our video right here.
Supplies
Crayola Air Dry Clay (Walmart)
Orange Stick, toothpick
Paints
Summary
Well, you pretty much just need to watch the video to see how it's done. Everyone loves playing with clay but here's just a few hints to make it a more enjoyable experience.
Put something on your table surface to protect it, or move outside to a table you can wash off easily. I used a tempered glass cutting board.
Start with a small stem first. The more clay you use, the heavier the moist clay will be and it won't hold it's shape if it's too large. For example, if you want to make a curvy stem, it will droop over.
Place real stem or pumpkin in front of your so you have something to guide you.
Let the stems dry completely before painting and attaching. The tip I gave about drying in the oven....was just a tip. Do it at your own risk, it wasn't something recommended by Crayola. I mean, they didn't say not do it, but the product is designed to air dry over a few days.
I'm sure there are other products out there too besides Crayola Air Dry Clay, but this was handy for me to experiment with.
Paint to your desired color. You can used brown, gold, black, silver. Whatever fits your pumpkin.
Use hot glue to secure to the pumpkin and remind folks, not to pick up by the stem.
If you have any little sneaky areas of white clay peeking through when you're done, you can touch up with a permanent marker - even after it's attached!
If you are interested in learning how to make fabric pumpkins, we have an easy tutorial! How to Make Velvet Pumpkins
