How To Make A Pressed Flower Pumpkin To Decorate Your Home This Season

If you are not planning on carving into your pumpkin haul this year, there are a wealth of ways to decorate this plump signature fruit of the season. While these methods involve everything from painting to wrapping your pumpkin instead of wielding a knife, the prettiest suggestion may come from Instagrammer @northwoodsfolk, who shows us how to create beautiful, delicately-wrought-pressed flower designs on pumpkins. 

Even better, this method of pumpkin decoration helps the pumpkin survive far longer than traditional jack-o-lanterns and is fully compostable if you use a recipe for a food-safe adhesive. All you will need are pumpkins, pressed flowers from the garden, and adhesive. Because the glue is food-safe, you can still use the pumpkin for cooking up all those November pies while still enjoying it fully during the decorating season. These pressed flower pumpkins are beautiful for cottage core and farmhouse décor Halloween aesthetics with a slightly Victorian feel. 

To use @northwoodsfolk's recipe for food-safe glue, you will need 1½ cups of water, 2 tablespoons of corn syrup or honey, 1 teaspoon of vinegar, and 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. Bring the liquid mixture to a boil before adding the starch, which will thicken the glue to a paste that dries clear. After it cools, you will have a food-safe and earth-friendly adhesive that is perfect for adding flowers to your pumpkins. Simply use a coat of glue to adhere the flower, then add another coat of paste over it to finish.

If you do not plan to eat or compost the pumpkins afterward, you can also use two coats of Modpodge as an adhesive, which will also dry completely clear. While these delicately decorated pumpkins are not waterproof and not destined for the elements, they make perfect indoor decorations or can be placed in dry outdoor spots like porches and under overhangs. You can glue single buds around the perimeter, a pretty skull created from flowers, or create intricately beautiful still-life floral designs on your pumpkins.