12 September

One of my favorite DIY projects is making treasures from trash.

Sometimes it's something broken that is either in my own discard pile (but not really a pile to discard because I can make something with it) 😂or something someone else has thrown away, and sometimes it's putting together unrelated pieces of junk and making something cute.

Today's project is a combination of both.

I used some things I already had and some things that I found on the ground during walks. Would you believe me if I told you I made a cute pumpkin from this can of rusty screws, nuts, bolts, and random stuff?

How to Make a Junk Pumpkin

Well, I'm about to prove it!

I used some things out of this can, a few things I found on walks, an oval wooden plaque, some hardware cloth, and some paint, and created what I think is super cute... but you'll have to let me know if you agree.

The wooden plaque I had was already painted so if you plan to make your own junk pumpkin, just know that you do not need to paint the plaque.

I arranged the pieces I wanted to use on the wood plaque like a puzzle.

I had the cabinet knob in my stash, it was taken off of something I was making over, the paperclip was found on the ground, the lock came off an old door I found at the dump, and the rest was in that can.

Once I had the arrangement figured out, I glued it all down with E-6000 glue and let it dry overnight.

I used some hardware cloth that was inside an old lamp that I took apart. I saved it for something great 😏

I cut leaf shapes from it using some garage scissors.

I twisted some 20 gauge wire around a dowel to create tendrils and picked out something to use as a stem. I painted these things with green spray paint.

Once the plaque was dry, I painted it with bright orange spray paint.

Then once the spray paint had dried, I added the leaves, stem, and tendrils to the top.