Individual Pumpkin Flower Arrangement

I bet you have been dying to know what I carry around in my bag all day. What?!? You haven’t? Well, Tauni @ SNAP conference wanted to know, and I found the results rather interesting! All is revealed over on the SNAP blog today! Go check it out and let me know what random stuff you’ve found in your bags.

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Around this time last year, I did a post that ran on the SNAP blog about making a cute flower arrangement in a pumpkin! Since you know how I feel about Thanksgiving Table-setting, I thought I should share it here, in case you missed it the first time. Or are still in search of ideas for your Thanksgiving table.

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Have you planned your table decor for Thanksgiving yet? Here is a simple flower arrangement that you could re-create in your centerpieces or as individual placecards, like in my inspiration photo.

I’m really in love with this Thanksgiving tablescape I found on Pinterest. (I couldn’t trace it back to the original source. If you know it let us know so we can give proper credit.) I’m going to show you how quick and easy it is to create a mini-pumpkin floral arrangement.

You’ll need:

mini pumpkins

a small plastic sauce cup

a small amount of WET floral foam (floral oasis)

bunch of flowers (I bought these mums at the grocery store)

a knife and scissors

I started by turning the sauce cup up-side-down on top of the pumpkin and tracing around the edge. This lets you know how wide to cut open the pumpkin.

Cut the top off of the pumpkin using the line you drew. The sauce cup should sit nicely inside. Keep trimming bits of the inside until it does. You’ll want to clean out the pumpkin “guts” just like you do when carving a jack-o-lantern, only there isn’t nearly as much to clean from one of these little pumpkins.

Use a knife to cut a piece of foam that is just about the size to fill the cup. I could have made mine a little bigger. A snug fit is best. Remember with the floral foam to allow it to slowly soak up water in a bowl or sink. Don’t force it under the water or run it under the faucet. When it is submerged in water it is ready to be placed in the sauce cup and nestled into the pumpkin base.

NOTE: Floral foam is available in the floral section of most craft stores. I think I may have even found it at Walmart, BUT it’s usually near the dry foam, and they often sell a lot more of that, so you might have to look harder to find it. Make sure you buy the WET foam, also known as oasis. Dry foam only works if you are using artificial or dried flowers.

Next is the fun part! Trim stems of flowers fairly short and begin inserting them in the foam. Make sure they are forming a pleasant dome shape.

If you are making lots of arrangements, consider buying some bunches of greens (smaller leaves if possible at this scale) and covering the arrangement with greenery first. You will only need 6 or 7 flowers per pumpkin that way and it could save a lot of money. I do love the look of single flower arrangements. Just be aware that they may require more flowers than you would think. This one used more than half of the bunch I had purchased.

For a little extra whimsy, you can skewer the top of the pumpkin on a bamboo stick or toothpick and insert it into the foam. In the inspiration picture. They made little “handles” out of branches to attach to the top of the arrangment.

These would be great as placecards. You could write names or paint monograms right on the pumpkin. You could even cut names out of vinyl and transfer them to the pumpkin. They would also be sweet with paper flags sticking out of the arrangement with a name on them.

Or you could make a few of these and put them on pedestals for a festive centerpiece.

I made a giant pumpkin floral arrangement one once that went in the middle of a serving table. I’ve also used other squashes or gourds as vases. Just adjust the size of the containers and foam, and the amount (and scale) of flowers you use.

For a different twist on the pumpkin flower arrangment, you might try making a flower arrangement in the shape of a pumpkin.