House of Hepworths

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in Crafting· Crafts· Decorating· Seasonal

There’s a pumpkin in my dryer… oh, wait!

Now that Fall has officially arrived I remembered a cute craft my mom made years ago.

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A dryer duct pumpkin!

I use to have one, but I can’t find it, so I just made another one. Now I get to show you a tutorial on how to do it. Yippie!

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These pumpkins are so fun and easy to make. And who would have thought to use a dryer duct?

For this project you’ll need:

* an aluminum dryer duct 3″ diameter about 21″ long

* 3 cinnamon sticks

* raffia

* hot glue gun or small stapler

* orange Rust-oleum spray paint

First thing, aluminum duct.

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I purchased mine at a hardware store. This package was about $13, but just look at it!, it will probably make tons of pumpkins! Maybe you and your friends can go in together and split the cost.

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I wrapped the duct around into a circle to figure out how much I need. Make sure you cut a little extra. Better safe than sorry!

Since the duct spirals around, you’ll have to clip the wire in the duct.

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I tried to use scissors but they weren’t strong enough. I had to use pliers with a cutter on it to snip that one section.

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After the section was cut I measured it and it was about 21″ long.

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Either end of the duct will look pretty sloppy.

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So you’ll want to tuck the extra aluminum inside to make it smooth looking.

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Take either end of the tubing and bring them together and hot glue the edges together. Or if you have a small stapler you can probably just staple it together.

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Now it’s time to spray paint! I already had bright orange Rust-oleum spray paint in my stash from my botched cooler project. I’m glad I finally found a use for this bright orange. I was afraid I had wasted four bucks.

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Once the paint was dry I just hot glued 3 cinnamon sticks in the middle and tied a raffia bow around it.

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I used 3 cinnamon sticks as opposed to one because the three together made a thicker stump which in my opinion looked better.

I also used about 5 strands of raffia to make a more full bow.

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On a side note, I bought the cinnamon sticks at Hobby Lobby. I originally found a package on the Fall isle for $3.99 but after browsing all the isles I found a package on the Christmas isle for only $1.99.

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Sneaky, Hobby Lobby. Very sneaky!

Maybe it will help my totally pathetic attempt at a computer desk seem more festive!

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Well, at least the mini dresser and pumpkin are cute!

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~ Happy Fall Crafting!! ~

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Comments

    • Has anyone tried painting with anything other than spray paint? I would like to try this with a group of children and don’t want them using spray paint … ideas?

      Reply

  3. How cute is that! And very easy, too. Thank you so much for sharing a cute and quick craft. My kids might even like this one 🙂

    Reply

  5. I was flipping through my reader and saw this and said, Hey, that looks like the pumpkin that Allison had in her house.

    DUH! ;D

    Reply

  12. Hi Allison-

    This is so clever and cute. What a great idea. I think I have some excess dryer hose in my basement. Prest-o Change-o a pumpkin. Love re-purposing projects like this.
    My best- Diane

    Reply

  16. Love it! Want to go buy a duct and make pumpkins to put all over my house. It would be perfect as I have very little fall decor!

    Reply

  18. We made those at MOPS one year and they had even painted them for us so we just had to put it together. One of my favorite fall decorations.

    Reply

  21. I was just blog-hopping and came across your blog. I’m so glad I did!

    I LOVE this project! I actually have an extra dryer duct lying around…why? I have no idea! I’m definitely going to make this. So cute!!

    Reply

  23. omg this is amazing. just by looking at that pumpkin i would have never thought it was a dryer duct? so cool and so creative!

    Reply

  25. That pumpkin is so adorable!! Love it!! I am going to have to give this a try!
    Hugs
    SueAnn

    Reply

  31. OK, that is just ridiculous…ly adorable. So smart. Thanks for linking up…and can you come back and re-link because I was apparently so tired at 4:30 this morning I installed the mkliny with the teeniest tiniest thumbnail you could possibly imagine. I could barely even see the pictures. I’ve changed the thumbnail size and they’re all blurry now!

    Reply

  35. This is genious!!!! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! Thank you so much for sharing. Your blog colors are eye candy for me today. Thanks

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  36. Cute idea! Followed your link over from Fab Friday. Drop by Atticmag and leave a comment for your chance to win Roxy bedding.

    Allison
    Atticmag

    Reply

  44. I’m gonna try using the plastic dryer venting (the white stuff) that I have in the basement and see if that has the same effect!!

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  45. You have one clever Mommy to come up with this adorable pumpkin. Lucky that you remembered how to make it too! Thanks for sharing.. I am sure that after construction.. I have plenty of that stuff around.. now atleast its useful!

    Reply

  46. Wow I can’t believe that’s made out of a dryer duct but now that I see it, I also see that it’s perfect since the ribs are already part of it! I didn’t realize how cute and little it was until I saw it on your desk, what a fun decoration! Thanks so much for joining us at A Crafty Soiree! I hope to see you next week too!

    Reply

  58. Allison – These are adorable! So clever and creative – really unique! I’ll be featuring this tomorrow – Stop by and grab a featured button if you like. Thanks for linking up to the Sunday Showcase. I greatly appreciate it. Hope you have a fabulous week. Stephanie Lynn

    Reply

  63. My daughters made these in a girls club: white plastic duct, staples, tree twig and acrylic paint.
    The paint flaked off some from the flexible plastic, so I repainted them, mixing some white glue with acrylic paint. They’re still in fine shape after over 10 years.

    Reply

  65. Wow your mom had a great idea! That is just too cute and so easy and creative to make. Thanks for the tutorial. Just saw this at UTT&D blog. Love it!

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  66. I just drove by a new house in the development and saw some of this in the burn pile! I am so going over there and snitching it!! I can’t wait!

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  71. I just HAD to come and see your pumpkin!! I love it!!! You can even set them out in the yard without fear of them being smashed. 🙂 Great tutorial!

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  73. My mom and I made these years ago too! I love them and this reminded me that I should make my own! Thanks for the tutorial!

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  74. Allison, this is SOOOOOO cute, and SOOOOO creative. How in the world did your mom come up with this. I am in awe. This is my kind of project if I’v ever seen one. Please come over and link up to my party too, he he, I wanna have you on there, with this awesome project. Girl you rock. I AM GOING TO DO THIS thanks to you, can’t wait to show you my pics. 😛

    Reply

  75. I LOOOOOVE it. I’ve got some extra dryer vent and I’m going to make those. I’ve been needing some new holiday decorations and that will be perfect. Thanks for the great tutorial.

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  77. Very clever. I’ve been thinking about how to use dryer vent as a craft item for years and never came up with anything this cute.

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  78. I actually need a dryer duct. Right now the duct goes on my porch and makes that a mess. I’m going to take it and have the stuff go behind my trellis. Maybe I’ll have enough for the pumpkin too. Very cute project!!

    Reply

  80. This is so cute and clever!! I love it! BUT I had to tell you while I was looking thru some links on The Gypsy’s Corner my 2 yr old daughter said “oh look mama, a punkin” and pointed to the thumbnail link of your pumpkin!!! 🙂

    Reply

  82. Thanks for the great idea! I just made one, and I spent $0! I found some old dryer vent in my garage, and it is the white kind 🙂 Instead of painting it, I left it white, and used a stick I found outside for the stump. Some found twine for a bow, and Voila! An awesome pumpkin! Thanks for the tutorial, and for getting my creative juices flowing! 🙂

    Reply

  84. Hey Allison, Thanks so much for linking up and for your great support, you were so kind to reply like right away 🙂 I loved this so much I had to FEATURE you today, so please come and grab a FEATURED button, and I appreciate you adding me to your weekly party list. Hope to see more of your projects soon!!!

    Reply

  86. What a great idea! I think have all the supplies for this already! I’ve been looking for some non-real pumpkins that could survive our front porch and this may work. We have tons of lava rock which removed from our garden beds so it could used to weight them down. Thanks!!!

    Reply

  89. I actually own one of these!!!!! I bought it years ago at a craft fair!!!

    The only difference is she used a paper towel holder as the stem.

    Shows you how far I’ve come…I would never buy something that easy these days. LOL

    Reply

  92. I love the pumpkin. I’m a volunteer for Hospice. Do you have a printer friendly tutorial. I would love to share this with other volunteers and see if we could make these for our patients as a seasonal gift. Would be perfect for this time of year.

    Reply

  101. I must have gotten the wrong kind of dryer duct. It was aluminum, but very hard to work with. The spiral ducts were way closer together, anywhere I pushed too hard left a big dent. So this project is benched until I find a better dryer duct. So cute though! On the the dollar store wreath! : )

    Reply

  103. I couldn’t help myself and had to rush out and get a dryer vent hose! Easy to make- I used a stick that had fallen outsides from a tree rather than a cinnamon stick but this was so easy!!! Thanks for the tutorial! 😆

    Reply

  104. So making this! I think I have some vent in my laundry room that is leftover from installing our dryer. Woo hoo! I’ll probably use a stick from outside (though I bet the cinnamon sticks smell lovely) and use whatever orange paint I have laying around to make this project free! So cool!

    Reply

  105. That is ridiculously CUTE!! I love it!! I know we have some of that dryer duct stuff sitting in our laundry room that’s just asking to become a pumpkin! 🙂

    Reply

  110. We made these as a Girl Scout craft many years! They were so easy and fun! 🙂 Nice to see someone else knows of the dryer vent genius!

    Reply

  111. Funny that I found this on someone elses page and it linked right back to yours LOL. This is soooooo cute!

    I have an unused dryer duct, yay! — Off to Lowes to pick up some orange spray paint. I’ll send ya a pic when Im done. Halloween is my favorite Holiday! Im just pissy that they are not allowing me to take that day off from work this year 🙁

    Reply

  112. I just made this! Mine was harder because I used a different kind of duct, your choice would have been SO MUCH easier, but I had the kind I used sitting around so I made it work.

    You can check it out on my blog!

    I LOVE HOW CUTE IT IS!! Thanks for the great idea! <3

    Reply

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