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What a great idea and I am loving ALL of the inspiration. I’m not quite ready for fall, but what a lovely way to prepare myself. Head over and check out all of the fall fun!

Here’s my post:

I know. I know. It’s a little early….
I don’t know what your weather is like, but here in PA, it’s beginning to feel a lot like Autumn. It’s still August for goodness sake! But chillier temps (currently 59 degrees!) and a trip to Michael’s where Halloween and fall have already been on display for a few weeks = autumn on the brain. (I didn’t procrastinate this year!)

(Note: I AM NOT ready for the summer to end just yet…where’d it go?)

Last fall my daughter and I got crafty and I decided to make it a tradition. I’ll share that project with you next month some time but now for Met Monday hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch, I want to show you what we did this weekend.

Remember my house number flower pots? Well, soon those flowers are going to flower-heaven as fall frost gets closer, right? Then what? Well…introducing my House Number Funkins (faux pumpkins) with glow in the dark glittered numbers (which look so cool glowing but photographing in the dark is a little tricky):

I haven’t put them out yet. I’m not quite ready to say good bye to summer and my petunias are still soaking up the last of summer but I’ll be all ready when it’s time.

Here’s what I did.1. In Microsoft Word, I enlarged my house numbers in a font I liked. (heavy heap). I printed them on old card stock.

2. Then I cut out the numbers to create stencils.
3. I traced them onto my pumpkins. Using the actual number instead of stencil worked a little better since it’s not a flat surface. (I didn’t take a before picture…but this is pretty much what it looked like before. You’ve seen a faux pumpkin…kind of boring and plain.)
4. I painted them using metallic craft paint. This took a couple of coats. Fun project in front of a movie since it’s time consuming and repetitive. I just did stripes on mine with house numbers since they’ll mostly only be seen from the road.
5. After the paint was dry, I used a cheap, small paint brush to apply glue to the numbers.
6. Then I poured on Martha Stewart’s glow-in-the-dark glitter.
(Nestie friends – D&R Halloween Nightmare II – Return of the Glitter Pumpkins)

My daughter painted this one:

That’s as far as I got today. But I will also:7. Spray a protective coat of matte lacquer over my pumpkins and the glittered numbers for outdoor durability.
8. Cut a hole in the top so that I can add sand or rocks to give them weight (to prevent blowing away when it’s windy). That’s it. I’m really happy with how they turned out and can’t wait to update this little area about the 2nd week of September. They will go here: