Craft a Rustic Pumpkin with a Box

Friends, today I am going to share with you how to craft a rustic pumpkin with a box. I always strive to make budget-friendly crafts, which is why I love to find ways to upcycle items. Today, we are going to upcycle an empty cardboard powdered drink mix box and transform it into a gorgeous farmhouse inspired fall décor! Nothing quite says “sweater weather,” like cute pumpkin decorations, so be sure to add this beautiful upcycled craft to your fall décor this season!

Supplies needed:

Empty drink box mix
plastic bag filled with rice
16 craft sticks
black & orange paint
sand paper
Spanish Moss
Leaf
brown paper tag
raffia ( You can get this here on my affiliate link – RAFFIA)
button
Green wired floral twine (hobby lobby in wedding section)
hot glue gun & glue sticks ( Get my favorite cordless hot glue gun here on my affiliate link – GLUE GUN)
paint brushes

Step 1. Take an empty cardboard drink mix box, the boxes that have the packets of powdered drink mix in them, and place some rice inside of the box to give it some weight. Then, secure the top opening shut with hot glue. Allow to dry.

Step 2. Now we will cover the entire box with regular popsicle sticks. I used 16 popsicle sticks to cover the box; 5 to cover the front, 5 to cover the back, and 3 for each side of the box. Using regular popsicle sticks, cut just the rounded bottoms off of the popsicle sticks first to make a straight edge. Then, hold one of the straight- edge popsicle sticks against the front of the box vertically to see/measure where to cut the other rounded end of the popsicle stick off. *You want to leave a tiny bit of an over-hang at the top of the box. Use this trimmed down at each end popsicle stick as a guide to cut the other popsicle sticks. This way you will have straight-edged popsicle sticks that will fit evenly all around the cardboard box. Then, hot glue your trimmed down popsicle sticks evenly and tightly together going around the entire box. *For the sides of the box, first hot glue 1 popsicle stick at each end, allowing a small gap going down the middle, then hot glue another popsicle stick over top of the gap. So, each side of the box will have 3 trimmed down popsicle sticks. Allow to dry.

Step 3. Using Minwax stain in the color “dark walnut,” stain the entire popsicle covered box. *Be sure to wear old clothes and gloves when staining. Always stain in a well-ventilated area. Allow to dry.

Step 4. Using a muted orange shade of paint, I used pumpkin orange from Apple Barrel and added a tiny dot of black paint to tone the orange color down a bit, take a paint brush and paint the stained box pumpkin orange. Allow to dry. Then, apply a second coat of paint and allow to dry.

Step 5. Go over the pumpkin orange colored box with a sanding block. This process gives a more rustic finish to the project.

Step 6. Take a small bunch of Spanish Moss and hot glue it down onto the top of the rustic box/pumpkin. Allow to dry.

Step 7. Find a stick from your backyard and trim it down to size to use as the stem for the pumpkin/box. Hot glue the trimmed down stick to the center of the top of the pumpkin/box over top of the Spanish Moss. Allow to dry.

Step 8. Trim off a piece of floral wire, I got mine at Hobby Lobby in the wedding section, and then curl it around the end of a paint brush so it makes a spiral. Then, wrap this spiraled floral wire around the stick stem of the pumpkin so that some of the spiraled wire is over hanging at each end.

Step 9. Using some raffia, tie a knot around the stick stem of the rustic pumpkin so that strands of raffia are hanging down to about the bottom of the pumpkin/box at each end. Then, take some more strands of raffia and make a simple bow. Hot glue the raffia bow onto the front of the stick stem over top of the raffia knot. Allow to dry.

Step 10. Using a faux fall leaf of your liking, hot glue one leaf onto the top one side of the pumpkin over top of the Spanish Moss so that the leaf hangs down over the front of the pumpkin a little. Allow to dry.

Step 11. Take a brown colored tag and write the word “PUMPKIN” on it using an ultra-fine point Sharpie marker.

Step 12. Hot glue the “PUMPKIN” tag to the one top corner of the pumpkin so that it hangs down a bit over the front of the pumpkin going in a diagonal direction. Allow to dry.

Step 13. Hot glue a small black button onto the middle of the raffia bow. Allow to dry and enjoy!