DIY Twig Pumpkin with Late Summer Color

Winding into the last days of summer, there is a lot of beautiful late summer color to soak up. Round here, there are still remnants of black-eyed susans and purple cone flower, as well as the start of goldenrod and New England aster. Needless to say, I’d like the transition to fall to be sloowwww. And you probably agree if you are heading into the fall yourself. Here is a diy twig pumpkin project to try. 

Mine is inspired by the late summer color, but you can tweak this idea to suit your style.

I started with this old scrap piece of wood that was a makeshift shelf from an antique armoire that I sold a while back. The new owner didn’t have need for the shelving piece, hence I kept it.

I purchased this bundle of Asian Willow branches from Michael’s and cut off the larger pieces at the bottom for my twigs.

I gave the scrap wood a paint wash with a mix of orange and brown craft paint.

Then I gave the wood a coat of  aqua-ish colored diy chalk paint; let it dry and then sanded it down a bit.

Next I googled pumpkin drawings and made a paper pumpkin template that was just the right size for the piece of scrap wood. I drew the shape and then traced around it a few times to enlarge it to size.

I traced the pumpkin template onto a piece of cardboard and then painted the cardboard the same aqua-ish color.

I laid my twigs out onto the paper pumpkin template and then transferred and glued the twigs to the cardboard pumpkin template.

Tip: I started gluing in the middle first, and the worked my way upwards and downwards to keep the twigs straight.

I flipped the cardboard over and cut the twigs down along the cardboard pumpkin shape. Some of the twigs fell off, so I had to re-glue them. Once that was done, I glued the cardboard pumpkin, now with twigs, onto the painted scrap wood piece.

I also drilled two holes and ran wire through the top part.

The dark reddish, rusty orange color of the branches reminds me of the darker hues that start to show in nature during late summer.

The aqua/turquoise color keeps in mind those late summer days at the beach.

The pumpkin shape is a promise of the harvest, yet to come.

Would you call this late summer decor, or just another way of prolonging the arrival of fall?

More twig projects:

Twig Christmas Tree Ornament

Twig Christmas Tree Luminaries

Valentine Twig Heart Trivet

Children’s Twig Name Art

Thanks for stopping by and indulging me my twig project obsession!! ~ Amy

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