Here is our finished product.
Materials:
Funkin (or a pie pumpkin)
Basic tools (but a razor blade and small pin will do just fine)
Leaf mold
Glass candle jar things
Glaze (optional)
Liquid sculpey (optional)
Polymer clay in the colors of your choice (I used red, yellow, brown and orange)
A paintbrush (optional)
Sticks
Fake grass or moss
Glue
Styrofoam (I know there's a ball pictured here, but I ended up using a piece of a block because it was easier to cut into the shape I needed)
Baby powder (or corn sta
rch)First, cut a hole in the top of your Funkin (if you're using a real pumpkin, scoop out the insides, too). Then, cut the styrofoam to fit inside your pumpkin.
Next, start sticking sticks into the styrofoam (you can opt to glue the grass into the styrofoam first. I suggest doing this, although I didn't do it myself).
Continue until you are satisfied with the number of sticks in your pumpkin.
If you did not put the grass on first, this is the time to do it. Since I decided to go about it the difficult way, I used a small paintbrush to get glue onto the styrofoam and then used the back of the paintbrush to press the grass in place. Do this until you are satisfied with the amount of grass (at least until the styrofoam is covered).
Set this piece aside and get the leaf mold. Dust the mold with baby powder (or corn starch) to prevent the clay from sticking. Gently blow or shake off excess powder. Press a ball of conditioned clay into the mold of your choice.
Carefully use a razorblade of knife (or whatever you want to use, really. I do not suggest chewing the excess clay off with your teeth, though) to remove the excess clay on top.
Use the excess clay to get the leaf out of the mold by touching the excess clay to the clay in the mold. The leaf should come out easily if the mold was powdered well. Brush excess powder off of the leaves.
Do this for as many leaves as you would like. I used small leaves from the mold for the pumpkin and larger leaves for the glasses. I chose to do 6 small brown, 4 small red, 4 small orange, and 4 small yellow for the pumpkin. I chose a medium sized leaf from the mold and made two of each color for the smaller glasses. I used the maple leaf from the mold for the larger glass and made one leaf of each color. You can mix and match and do whatever is best for you. Expirement a little, you can come up with some really awesome stuff.
Use a needle to poke a hole in each of the small leaves. Make sure the hole is big enough to pass thread through, but not so big that it is immediately obvious.
Bake the small leaves according to the directions on the clay. DO NOT BAKE THE BIGGER LEAVES FOR THE CANDLE GLASSES YET. Each brand is slightly different, so please follow the directions to prevent burning and other badness. I use a toaster oven for small things like this. You can put a little tent of tin foil over the leaves to keep them from scorching (I especially recommend this if you are using a toaster oven).
Now, while those small leaves are baking, grab your glasses and begin to arrange your larger leaves on them. The clay should stick right to the glass. If you are having problems with it, you can use a little liquid sculpey or clear drying glue to hold the leaves on.
Once you have the leaves arranged how you want them, put the entire glass (or all of the glasses) into the oven and bake according to the instructions on the clay. Again, if you are using a toaster oven, I suggest the tin foil tent. Your little leaves should be baked by now, so if they are cool, move on to the next step.
While that's baking, take your small leaves and use thin thread or fishing line to .. uhh .. make something loopy that you can hang? Here, look at the picture.
Arrange these on your branches however you would like. (See the picture up top for the finished product.)
Once your glasses are done baking, leave them alone. Let them cool in the oven. You don't want to touch hot glass. It hurts. Once they're cool enough to handle (or totally cool), you can take them out and stick some candles in them.
Tada, all done!
