Angry Birds Pumpkin

Happy Halloween!!      (...almost)

Every year, the bank that I work at has a pumpkin carving contest.  I've never been good at carving pumpkins, so I always 'decorate' my pumpkins.  Last year I made my pumpkin into a mummy, and the year before that it was a witch, complete with hair and a hat.  This year I wanted to do something fun and unique, but I also wanted to do something that the kids would recognize so they would vote for my pumpkin. :)  And what kid doesn't love Angry Birds?!?  Heck, what adult doesn't love Angry Birds?!  So here's what I came up with!

What do you think?  I was originally going to do the red bird but I didn't have red paint.  I had plenty of green paint, so I went with the pig.  Then I saw the queen pig, and decided the crown would be the perfect addition!  Do you want to see how I made the eyes, nose, and crown?

Of course, I started by painting the pumpkin green.  I only did two coats, and it seemed to be enough.

Then I started making the accessories while the paint dried.  For the eyes, I cut two big circles out of white felt.  Then I hand stitched around the outside edge of the circle.

I finished the eye by pulling the two ends of thread together, putting a bit of stuffing in the pocket, and tying a knot with the thread. Then I just cut little circles from black felt to make the eyeballs.

Next is the snout. For this, I just cut the shape that I wanted out of felt, then cut strips of felt for the side of the nose.

I put the side and snout together, and hand stitched them together.  This would have been much easier if my sewing machine wasn't broken, but oh well! Last, I did the same as I did with the eyes, and stitched around the edge of the strips of felt that were attached to the snout.  Then I gathered the two pieces of thread together, put some stuffing in it, and tied a knot.  I cut two different sized ovals from black felt, and hot glued them to the front of the snout.

I did the same thing for the ears.  Cut out the shape, stitch two together, turn inside out, fill with stuffing, and glue black felt to the front.  Easy peasy! :)

The crown was really simple. I took a piece of felt, folded it in half, and cut the triangle shapes off the top.  Then I glued all the sides together, cut blue felt circles, and glued the gems and circles to the crown.  Then I just glued the sides of the crown together.

 The only thing I didn't show was the eyebrows, because all I did was cut the shapes out of black felt, and hot glued them to the pumpkin.  I used hot glue to attach the eyes, nose, and ears.  If kids will be touching it, you might want to use pins to attach them.  The glue holds ok, but if anyone pulls on it, the pieces will come right off.

 So there you have it!!  What do you think?  My kids absolutely loved it, and I had so much fun making it!  Thanks so much for reading!!
Juli