2x4 Pumpkin Decor

Fall decor is so fun – it brings out the crafty in everyone. For my post this month as part of the Elmer’s Craft It Crew, I knew I wanted to fall decor, and since we have a bunch of leftover house building materials, a 2×4 craft was at the front of my thoughts. I just love how this 2×4 Pumpkin Decor turned out!

It has a simple rustic feel and is easier than you think to put together – yep, no nails, it’s just glued together, it’s that easy!

Let’s jump right in the tutorial. You’ll need:

–2×4 scraps in varying lengths

–Elmer’s Wood Glue

–rafia and wire

–brown and orange paint

–Elmer’s Glue-All

First up, I busted out our chop saw and cut a 2×4 into 5 chunks, the smallest was about 6 inches long.

Then using wood glue, I stacked them on top of each other, longest in the middle and shortest on top and bottom:

You want to be generous with the wood glue, but not let it seep out (I might have had a tad too much as you see below: )

Once you get it all glued and stacked, just put something heavy on top of it to hold it all together while the Elmer’s Wood Glue dries – I used a full paint can:

That’s it! See, easy peasy to build the form. Now on to the painting. I painted a base coat of brown:

After that dried completely I painted the orange. I experimented to see if I could get the paint to crackle by mixing in Elmer’s Glue-All instead of painting a coat of glue and a coat of color (like here on the Crackle Jars)

It ended up as more a mixed glaze than a crackle, but you can still see the brown through the orange, which is exactly what I was going for – –

For the stem I used a piece of 2×4 that I had shaved off earlier. You could also use a stick or twig. I glued it on. When dry, I tied rafia around it. For the wire, I wrapped it around a handle to get the “spring”, then with a dab of glue stuck it under the rafia.