Create an amazing plastic pumpkin totem pole for your front porch. Turn inexpensive plastic pumpkins into Halloween decorations that wow!

Plastic Pumpkin Totem Pole

You know those bright and cheap plastic pumpkins you always see at the store? The pumpkin pails that are only about $1 apiece?

What if I told you that you can turn those fake pumpkins into an amazing plastic pumpkin totem Pole?!

I am a huge fan of quick and easy decorations. The idea of having to store large decorations for an entire year is not appealing. While this one isn’t quite as cheap as the Spiderweb Wreath, it won’t hurt your wallet and can be created in an afternoon.

You can leave it up all season, and then toss it when the snow starts falling.

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No time to make this plastic pumpkin craft now? Pin it for later!

If you can’t make this pumpkin craft now, pin it to your crafts ideas board on Pinterest and it’ll be here for when you’re ready.

How to weather fake pumpkins.

You don’t need much ink to weather your pumpkins. Usually, one dip of the brush can cover the whole thing.
Paint in vertical strokes and make sure to add the ink all the way up the rim of the plastic pumpkin.
Don’t forget to place something heavy in the bottom pumpkin.
Add lights to the pumpkins so people can see them all day and all night!

Assembling your DIY stacked pumpkins

Below is our step by step tutorial for creating these stacked pumpkins. Feel free to print it for easy reference.

Yield: 1 Totem Pole

How to make a fun pumpkin totem pole perfect for Halloween

This is such a great activity for Halloween!

Prep Time 5 minutes

Active Time 20 minutes

Total Time 25 minutes

Difficulty Medium

Materials

Cheap plastic pumpkins handle removed.
Black ink.
Damp paper towels.
Some sort of weight. (I used a refilled water bottle)

Tools

Foam Brush
Hot glue gun and glue.
Craft Knife

Instructions

How to weather fake pumpkins:

If you don't want your pumpkin pails to be weathered, you can skip this and go straight to building your pumpkin totem pole. However, I love the way they look weathered...

Pour yourself a little bit of the black ink, have your foam brush handy, and a few dampened paper towels. You want the paper towels wet, but not dripping.
Start by painting with your ink down the creases of the pumpkin. Then add a light coat over the whole thing.
Once your pumpkin pail is covered, immediately take your damp paper towel and wipe off most of the ink. Use a downward swipe from the top to bottom. Work your way around the entire pumpkin.
Then start the next pumpkin!

Assembling your DIY stacked pumpkins

Play around with the color order of your pumpkins until you like your stack.

Place something heavy in the bottom pumpkin. We refilled a used water bottle and threw it in there. If you are placing yours somewhere that might get a lot of the wind you could add a few bricks.
As you stack your pumpkins add a few beads of hot glue around the seam where the two pumpkins meet. Again, depending on the location of the decoration is how much glue you will want to use.
Finally, find a good spot for your weathered plastic pumpkin totem pole! Since my kiddos are still pretty young we don't do too many scary Halloween decorations so this works out perfect for our family.

This thing is seriously cute!

How to add lights to your pumpkin totem pole

This was My Man’s idea so I have to give him credit…

Using an Exacto knife, I cut an X in the bottom 5 of the 6 pumpkins. Then one whole out the back of the one at the base.
Add in some white lights and bingo… It glows at night!

More Halloween projects you will love!

Weathered Teal Pumpkins – Instead of jack-o-lanterns, you can create a weathered look on white plastic pumpkins!
Halloween Wreath – Decorate your door with our spider web wreath craft

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