This project is part of our Halloween series, MISSION: SCARY. To see more Halloween projects, click here!

Okay, so some of the projects for MISSION: SCARY aren’t as scary as they are pretty. The only thing frightening about these concrete pumpkin place card holders is how gold and awesome they are. Oh, and maybe how ridiculously easy they are, too. You can have concrete pumpkins in under an hour, my friends. 

They make perfect ornaments for your plates at Thanksgiving dinner. Their own con? You can’t eat ’em.

Materials:

• cement-all mix (found at your local hardware store)
• pumpkin-shaped ice tray (found at Dollar Tree)
• liquid gold
• paintbrush

And it goes like this:

Mix the concrete and pour into the ice tray. Gently tap the ice tray on the counter to allow the concrete to settle. Place a wet paper towel over the ice tray to help the concrete cure. Allow 45 minutes to an hour to dry, and gently remove from the ice tray.

Paint each pumpkin with a little liquid gold and let that set. I’m going to confess right here and now that I love the smell of liquid gold. And rubber cement. And gasoline. I’m weird.

The concrete is just heavy enough to act as a paperweight. Write your guest’s names on mini kraft paper envelopes and place them at each seat with the gilded pumpkin.

Easy as pie. Pumpkin pie. If you want to be all scholastic, you could turn these into pushpins like these gilded concrete pineapple pushpins! Make a bunch and use them for Autumn Bingo. Or Tic Tac Toe. The possibilities are endless!

photography: all photos by The Proper Pinwheel