Wreath With Mini Pumpkins (AKA Putka Pods)
Look at the CUTE, tiny pumpkins on this wreath! Except—guess what? They’re not really pumpkins!
I wanted to do some crafting with pumpkins this fall, and I recently spent some time at both Dollar Tree and craft stores looking for them. I kept coming across bags of little pumpkins that weren’t quite right for what I was originally planning, but I started thinking about making a wreath. Who doesn’t love a wreath with tiny pumpkins? I wasn’t sure that these particular pumpkins were small enough, though. I did some research one day from home, and I came across putka pods.
A putka pod is actually a kind of seed, and these things are absolutely adorable. They truly do look like mini pumpkins! They even come in all shapes and sizes like pumpkins/gourds. I knew they’d be perfect for a wreath. (Bonus: the name alone has been entertaining my family for over a week now.)
Here’s what I used.
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- Foam wreath form
- Putka Pods
- Low temp glue gun
- Glue sticks—a lot of these!
- Ribbon
- Scissors
- Twine
- Stapler (you could also use a needle and thread)
I used a wreath form I already had, and I’m glad it ended up being a small one. Gluing on the pods was time-consuming, and though I could have gone bigger since I had plenty of pods left over, I was ready to be done. 🙂
How you want to hang the wreath is completely up to you, but I happened upon this ribbon in my stash, and it is perfect. It’s appropriate for fall and has just a little bit of sparkle that looks so pretty when it catches the light.
I prefer a low temp glue gun all of the time, but especially when I’m working with foam. I definitely don’t want to melt my wreath form.
So here’s what I did.
I got comfy at my desk and started gluing pods. Lots and lots of putka pods. Most of the time I put a little glue on each pod before I added it to the wreath. A couple of times I added some glue to a small section of the wreath and then added the pods. I didn’t worry too much about any gaps between the pods, because I knew I was going to go back through and cover those up again.
Which is exactly what I did. Once I had a good first layer, I started gluing a second layer, paying attention to any big gaps. I wanted to keep it as balanced-looking as possible, and that just naturally happened as I went along. I kept picking up the wreath and turning it to look at it from all angles. I found a lot of gaps I hadn’t noticed that way.
I finally had to stop myself from gluing ANY MORE PODS because sometimes I have trouble knowing when to stop. By sometimes I mean basically all the time.
At this point, I was actually originally planning to spray paint the whole wreath a metallic color (probably copper). I asked my social media followers for their opinions, and everyone said to leave it alone. So I did! The natural look is beautiful, but I think a painted version would also be stunning.
It took me a while to figure out how to hang my wreath and what exactly to do with the ribbon. I tried tying a regular bow, and I wasn’t sold on it. Then I came across this video, and this technique is amazing!
My ribbon is pretty thin, so I ended up making a bow with 8 loops. I’m in LOVE with this thing. I can’t wait to make some bows for my Christmas decor!
But back to the putka pod wreath…
I had a little bit of ribbon left over, and I used what was left to loop around the top of the wreath. I attached a hanger by making a loop out of twine, folding over the two ends of the ribbon through the loop, and stapling* them securely as in the first picture below. I wanted to hide the hanger as much as possible, so I pulled it up through a ribbon loop on the back of the bow and then stapled the bow onto the straight ribbon in a couple of hidden places just to make it extra secure. When the wreath is hanging, you can’t see the twine or staples at all.
- I used a stapler because it was handy and I wanted to see how it would do. The wreath it self is small and not very heavy, so I don’t have any concerns about it holding up. If I did, I would have sewn everything together.
Looking at the wreath hanging, I see some tiny bits of green that I missed. I’ll either glue some more putka pods onto it or use a little paintbrush and dab a little orange paint into the gaps. I’m not too concerned about it. 🙂
What do you think? Feel free to share with me on Instagram or Facebook if you make your own wreath!
