Made this Monday: Mechanical Pumpkin

Hello my lovelies and welcome to a brand new week!  This week I am super excited to share several cool Halloween-inspired crafts that are easy, quick to make, and have all the spooky charm of the season.  I love Halloween and lately, I've been really getting into the haunting Halloween spirit!  I'll be sharing all my Halloween favorites, traditions, crafts and inspirations over the next couple weeks starting with this easy DIY for a modern day mechanical pumpkin!

Ok, well, its actually not mechanical...But it looks like it could be!  This is the first of several crafts I'll be sharing that are made from mason jars.  The boy and I use mason jars for our drinking glasses, for storing sauces and for all kinds of other purposes - Crafting is definitely among the prominent uses!  But in many cases, we don't actually use the lids of the jars, resulting in a kitchen cabinet bursting with tin mason jar lids.  Until now...

To create this pumpkin you will need at least 18 mason jar lids, just the screw top part, and all the same size (I used the wide mouth jar lids.) Along with some basic twine, a cork from your favorite bottle of pinot and newspaper.

Lay out your lids so they are all facing the same way and are layered on top of one another.  Thread a bit of twine through the lids until you have them all hooked on the twine like so...

Next, pull the ends together and tie in a knot.  Trim the access twine and spread out the lids to create your pumpkin shape.

Finally to finish it off, add a regular wine cork to the center and embellish with a couple of "leaves" cut from newspaper. 

I love how this pumpkin is modern and made from basic items you can find around the house.  For some reason, it kind of reminds me of that film Return to Oz and Tick Tock (please tell me some of you other 80's kids out there know what I'm talking about!)  If you wanted to go for a more traditional look, you could spray paint the pumpkin orange and add some spiraled green pipe cleaners to give it a "just off the vine" look.  But personally, I am really kind of digging the utilitarian vibe of the plain silver.  Spooky and simple. 

If you try out this craft, let me know!  I'd love to see how you make it your own!