Fru Fru Pumpkins = Autumnal Goodness.

Welcome to Autumnal Goodness. This is the easiest and most fun project that makes a big wow ...Fru Fru Pumpkins!  Everything you see here, minus the pumpkin, came from the dollar store, so this project is great on the budget, too.  What do you need? Depends on your nature. 

I suggest any of the following:
          Ribbon
          Fake leaves in various colors and shapes
          Lots of straight pins
          Sequins if you are oh-la-la
          Picks, meaning little sprigs of autumnal stuff, berries, leaves, sticks, etc
          Curling ribbon

What to do now. You have a pumpkin (the one in the top picture came from Wal-Mart and was definitely NOT perfect, but who cares? I was covering it up anyway!)  Then decide if you want the ribbon to go all the way around (see the pic above) or only partial hanging down the sides, whatever! Or do you even want ribbon?  Anyway, use the straight pins to fix the ribbon at the top of the pumpkin and either on the bottom or on the side - wherever your ribbon stops.

The fake leaves can be added, not added, massive or sparse - it's all your taste. The first picture, I went crazy with leaves.  The one just above and below - not so much.  The top picture is from this year and is sitting in my office.  These two (above/below) are from my sister's rehearsal dinner at her wedding. More elegant and less tacky. :) 

Mom added sprigs of sticks, berry picks, etc to give some height around the stem.  Or sometimes a little bow.  Everyone loved the pumpkin centerpieces and they were really inexpensive.  We had a great time decorating them and gave them away to key people from the wedding.  They loved them.

Just so you can see the overall picture of Katie's rehearsal dinner - it was held outside in a covered picnic area with one wall of stones making a huge fireplace.  The white lights twinkled enough with the fireplace to light up the entire area just perfectly.  Brown plastic table clothes and the pumpkin centerpieces were just awesome! :)

So where did this pumpkin mania begin? At my old job, we were planning a fru fru ladies luncheon with an autumnal theme - WHA-LA! Awesome pumpkin centerpieces!  And, of course, at each table one of the agendas had THE DOT - you know, the special dot that means you are a WINNER! So someone received the centerpiece as a present, which the ladies loved!

Since this was a tad bit fru fru, we needed to bring out the bling with sequins, feathers and rhinestones. Sometimes, you just have to pull out the big guns: the hot glue gun that is.  Straight pins just won't do it with the rhinestones so ladies, grab the gun and glue away! 

Awesome results, no matter how you do it. So run out and buy your pumpkin, then look around your yard and house for the trimmings and have fun! I promise you there will be a WOW factor that tickles you pink. :)