The kids are always asking us to buy those funky decorative gourds at the grocery store in the fall. I usually say no, but last year I gave in and let them each pick one. They were initially annoyed that I wouldn't let them try to carve them, but I challenged them to find a different way to decorate them.
I was happily surprised at the end result. They used construction paper, as well as a few items that they had in their rooms. They turned out really well and lasted a long time since the kids just used tape to adhere everything, leaving the skin intact.
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I saved the gourds from my garden and hot glued them to an old vine wreath and added some ribbon and a poem. November Blessings to you all!
I enjoy raising and decorating gourds. The one here is one of my favorites. It only required tan leather dye, a skill saw with a fine blade and a drill and bit along with a little sandpaper and leather lacing.
Scrub the gourd good and let dry about 45 minutes. Paint on face and hair and let dry about 15 minutes.
The little farmers are gourds, painted in the colors you want. You can get both straw hats or you can crochet them, which ever you like.
1 clean round gourd, glue, cotton balls or cotton fiber fill of any color, 1 large Christmas bell, acrylic paint, acrylic sealer, spray at least 2 times for good coverage.
Gourds from your garden can make cute crafts. I used doll hair and regular acrylic paint for my "Breast Cancer Buddy". My daughter, Eryn, came up with the film canister idea for a craft show.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I am a crafter wanna be but have a lack of imagination, so I need pictures of other peoples crafts to get me started. I have a lot of old barn wood and can't get any ideas on what to do with it. The same with gourds as I find I am not the greatest painter. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
I've seen the old barn wood used as a stand up country santa. I think it was nailed to a flat square base. Because it's country, it doesn't have to be "perfect".
A good craft for old barn wood is to make an "old-fashioned" sign. We decorated our bedroom in a cabin theme with black bears and pine trees. My husband plans to make a "Do Not Feed the Bears" sign burning the letters on.
Paulette, if you will email me at fmnfkn @ aol.com(remove spaces) I can give you some information on gourds and where to look at lots of them.
I have not tried this with Gourds, but could a stencil of some kind be put on them? Or trace a picture onto it and paint it that way. I am not artistic either so thought this might be a solution for you. Good Luck.
For the old barn wood it makes nice picture frames or frames for mirrors. My sister in law does glass etching on mirrors and uses old barn wood for framing the mirrors when she is done for the rustic look.
try looking at www.craftster.org - they have some great ideas for lots of different kinds of crafts, and new ones are coming in all the time ^_^
Last week in our local paper I saw an article about a woman who was making purses out of gourds. They were cute and had straps on them.
Any ideas for setting up a nice space for crafting. I have so many projects I want to do, when you have to put it all away after to use the kitchen table or where ever then it's hard to start up again. I have a large table set up in my basement with room for the sewing machine and all. I'd like it make it nice so I want to be there. I like all sorts of crafting, sewing, painting, etc.
I recently bought some gourds from Michaels, I made birdhouses out of them for Christmas gifts . I can not paint either so I bought some "rub on stencils" (went on very easily) then sprayed polyurtherine on it to seal. I must say they turned out beautiful and everyone that has seen them thought I painted it on.
I will take your barn wood if you still have it. I have uses for it.
I'm a gourd grower and crafter. I love to paint and make thing with gourds. Just draw something on them and paint away.
I fell in love with gourds and mainly make purses out of them. I paint, wood burn and just polish them with shoe polish. the challenge is finding fasteners for the closures. i k stackhouse @ yahoo
Down here in TX, where I live, people make all kinds of stuff out of old wood. The stuff I like the most is furniture. I saw a whole bedroom suite made out of it for a young boy and decorated western. And then there are corner shelves and other shelves also.
Does anyone grow gourds? I am looking for some kettle gourds or other large type gourds. I paint and craft these and I am running out of my favorites. I have plenty of the apple gourds and others that I paint. I love to make birdhouses as well as other crafts from gourd. Please contact me if you have any gourds!
Hardiness Zone: 6b
Kathy from Beattyville, KY
Editors Note: Here is a ThriftyFun article if you would like to know more about growing gourds yourself:
Just the other day someone submitted a post about growing your own gourds.
I just did a search on thriftyfun and found this information.
www.thriftyfun.com/
seems like i saw someone selling them on ebay, not sure it was back before halloween though. also, if you have a local radio station in your town that does a 30 minute show where people sell there items you could call in saying you wanted to by some. flea markets may sell them too or your local farmers market.
Try this link- there are growers listed as well as state societies where you may come in contact with other artists near you. www.americangourdsociety.org/
Here is a website where you can order boxes of dried gourds.
www.welburngourdfarm.com/
I started growing my own about 2yrs ago, but before that I bought them on e-bay. You might also check online for your state's gourd society. The Tx State Gourd Society gives links to local growers as well as festivals and they always have plenty to sell.
I have gourds if you are interested, they are almost ready for harvest, I can ship them to you, as soon as my daddy gathers them. You may call me 910-452--2917 or I can call you or email. I would be glad to send them to you. Also have the long leaf pine cones 4 to 8 inches. I was asking 50 cent for the small and 1.00 for the 8 in. They are pretty. Thanks, Janet Wilmington, NC
Check out these photos.
We do a lot of painted gourds. We sell quite a few. We grew these gourds and then cleaned and painted them.
This plant holder is made out of a gourd. I used jute for the hanger and put a few macrame knots in it with some wooden beads. I cut the top out of a gourd (that I grew), and it cracked so I put a leather lace in it to keep it from cracking more.
