Wood Slice Painted Pumpkins

This year, I need to find quick and small decorations for my Thanksgiving table. It has been years since I hosted Thanksgiving at my house, and I want to decorate my table but also have room to comfortably seat eleven people. These small wood slice painted pumpkins I created last year for my fall mantel, which were actually too small, are perfect to reuse this year on my Thanksgiving table instead.

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To be totally honest, I often run behind on a lot of things around my house. I refuse to even think about the needed cleaning. I know this happens to all of us sometimes, where sickness or long work hours just put us behind. As a DIY blogger, I also fall behind on finishing up projects for the blog. My biggest and hardest critic is myself, of course.

This year, I am starting early on some things for Thanksgiving to relax and enjoy the day with extended family.  The table decor is just one of those items I will get done early!

The struggle to come up with new seasonal decor is real!

Previously, I made many wood slice ornaments for my Christmas tree because we had many of them.   I also made these adorable pumpkins one afternoon that I would use on my mantel, but they were too small. Instead, they ended up on the side table in the dining room.  This year, they will be part of the centerpiece for the dining table.

When we had a tree cut down last August, my husband took several different-sized branches and cut them into thin wood slices for me to use. Since the wood was so freshly cut, I had to prep the wood slices before I could use them.

Bake wood slices in the oven at a low temperature to dry them and kill any creepy crawly eggs attached to them.

I baked the wood slices in a 200-degree oven for at least an hour and a half—sometimes more. This helped to slowly dry them out and dry up the sap still in the wood.

Then I let them sit around for weeks to continue to cure.

When I was ready to use them, we sanded them down using a belt sander—which is quicker than hand sanding—and made the surfaces smooth and clean.

So far, I have found that the slices are not sticky at all and take acrylic paint very well. So, it seems that this method worked to dry them out and prepare them for use.

I just applied several coats of Harvest Orange paint to make my new faux pumpkins, using painted wood slices on one side of the slices.  The details of the twigs and leaves are just from supplies I had left in my craft stash from making my owl wreath a few weeks ago.

With a bit of creativity, you can make a decorative pumpkin or Fall decor out of anything.

Unfortunately, my wood-slice painted pumpkins were much too small for my large mantel, so last year, they were displayed on the side table in my dining room. This year, they are part of the table display.

Hugs!

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.”  Philippians 2:3

If you liked this post, there are many more to visit and enjoy:

DIY Wood Slice Wreath for Fall

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