Faux Real Pumpkin Floral Arrangement

I've had this project on my to do list for a while and I finally got around to it last week.  

I don't have a lot of pumpkin decor because I like to just use the real ones if possible.  But I picked up a few of these carvable pumpkins a few years ago after halloween with plans to turn them into a pumpkin centerpiece.  If you've looked on Pinterest you've probably seen several versions of this, but I thought I'd share my take on it.

You start with a carvable pumpkin.  I used an orange one because that's all they had left when I bought mine, but they come in white too which I think would be really pretty!  

Then just cut a hole out of the top big enough for a glass to fit in.  I tried using a razor blade at first and ended up switching to a serrated knife.  The knife made it so much easier.  I made two of these, and for the first one I just eyeballed it and it was fine.  But for the second one I turned the glass upside down on the top of the pumpkin and traced around it to make sure I got the exact size I hole I needed.

Insert your glass and you have a festive fall vase!  I chose to paint mine a grayish green (Rustoleum Charcoal Gray) because it's what I had on hand and I liked it better than the orange, but you could do it any color or leave it as is.  

For the arrangement I just used grocery store (Trader Joe's) flowers.  I spent a little over ten dollars on the flowers and I was able to get two arrangements out of it.  I also mixed in some fake flowers (the white ones) from Hobby Lobby.  I'm not normally big on fake flowers, but I'm amazed at how real these look, even in real life!  I love that I can use them over and over again too.

I'm hosting a fall themed baby shower in a few weeks and I'm excited to use these as part of the decor.  They'd be great for a Thanksgiving centerpiece too!