Big Bird Pumpkin

Pumpkins are popping up everywhere lately, as we near Halloween. I remembered the Big Bird pumpkin my daughter and I made a few years ago and thought I'd share. Check it out!

Figuring out how to make it was more difficult than actually making it. So if you want to make one like this, I'll share with you how we did it (finally, after several missteps).

What you need:
pumpkin
yellow paint
BIG googly eyes
Styrofoam cone
hot pink felt
dark blue glitter felt (or navy or black)
yellow felt
light pink felt
red felt
yellow feathers (sold in a little pack at the craft store)
hot glue or some other adhesive
wire hanger
wire cutters
paper and pen (optional)

Paint the whole pumpkin yellow.  It might take a couple of coats to get full coverage. Let it dry.

Make the beak - cut the Styrofoam cone in half lengthwise. Cut the yellow felt to fit, wrapping the ends like a present and gluing everything down as you go.  Then cut out the red felt to fit inside the flat cut edges of the Styrofoam, both sides.  Next cut a light pink tongue to fit inside that (only one, obviously). See photo for example. Glue it all together well.

Place the googly eyes on a piece of paper and draw a circle around them at the size you want the dark outline to be.  Then draw out two semi-circles on the paper for the eyes. This is just so you can have a template for cutting out the felt. It's not 100% necessary, but it made it easier for me.

Next use the circle template to cut out the dark felt and the semi-circle template to cut out the eyelids.
Glue the google eyes onto the dark felt, and glue the eyelids over that, onto the tops of the google eyes. Let them dry, and then glue the whole thing onto the pumpkin.

To attach the beak - Using wire cutters, cut four pieces of wire, 4 or 5 inches each. Attach the beak top and bottom to the pumpkin by skewering the base of the Styrofoam (which won't be covered in felt) and also skewering the pumpkin.  I put them in the foam first, and then kind of held it up to the pumpkin to see where the wires would go in the pumpkin, where I marked dots with a pen.  Then I took the wires out and inserted into the pumpkin and put the beak pieces onto that. That' just because of the texture of the pumpkin being tougher and might need a little more oomph.

You might need to top this off with some glue.  Oh, and don't get cute and think you can do this part with toothpicks. Nope, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it can't be done. I don't know that for a fact, but I do know that it couldn't be done in my house, so that's my story.

Last thing, get out those feathers and start gluing them to the stem. They'll stand straight up, just like our pal on Sesame Street.  Let it dry overnight.

Then display that bad boy, and watch the Big Bird fans squeal with delight!