I love reusing my favorite Halloween decorations each year; most were handmade by my mom or me over the years.

It's fun to get out the bins and create some Halloween vignettes that are different from the year before but use the same items.

I also like to make something new to add to my collection each year.

This year I'm duping some terracotta Jack-O-Lanterns that I saw at Decor Steals and Pottery Barn.

DIY Terracotta Jack-O-Lantern

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I meant to have this posted last week but in my infinite wisdom, I decided to rearrange and reorganize my craft room 😬

So that meant I made a giant mess and I couldn't even find my finished Jack-o-Lantern for days!

And then we got the announcement that it was time for this month's Do-It-Over-Designers challenge so I decided to share this project for the challenge.

If you stick around until the end of this post you'll be able to check out the other ladies projects.

Supplies

Electric plastic Jack-O-Lantern (I found mine at Goodwill for $4.99)
Flat black spray paint
Dark grey stone texture spray paint
Sandpaper
Handsaw to cut off the existing stem (optional)
Air dry clay to make a new stem
E6000 glue
Aluminum foil to create a form for the new stem
Dirt
Damp paper towel

I created a short video to show how I made this knock-off Pottery Barn/Decor Steals Jack-O-Lantern and the written instructions are below that.

This is the jack-o-lantern I found at Goodwill for $4.99.

There were two of them and one was slightly taller than this one. I wish I had gotten them both now but at the time I wasn't sure if this project would turn out.

These are the inspirational jack-o-lanterns that I saw. The Decor Steals ones are on the left; they are $99.00 for a set of three. The Pottery Barn ones are on the right; they are no longer available but I would imagine they were at least that price if not more.

Notice how their stems are longer and curved? The pumpkin I found at Goodwill had a short, squatty stem so I decided to change that.

I used air dry clay and some aluminum foil to make a new stem.

I wadded up the aluminum foil and shaped it into something more like the stems on the inspiration pumpkins and then rolled out some clay and covered the foil with it.

I used a toothpick to make the lines.

I let that dry overnight and in the meantime, I used a hand saw to cut the stem off my pumpkin.

I gave the whole thing a light sanding to remove some loose orange paint and give it a rough texture for painting.

Once the stem was dry, I used E6000 to glue it to the top of the pumpkin and then some more clay to blend it in.

I let that dry overnight too and then started painting.

I used some oil-rubbed bronze spray paint that I already had as the base coat but I only listed black in the supplies because that would work here too.

The next layer is for texture to give it a terracotta appearance. I used some stone texture spray paint that I also already had. (NOTE: If I were doing this again, I would get the thickest, coarsest stone paint rather than fine to make it look more like the inspiration).

For the next step, I used flat black primer and painted it in a vertical stripe pattern over the indented stripes on the pumpkin so that when it dries those areas will look darker (watch the video for a better explanation).