Sheet Metal Pumpkin Yard Decoration

This is just a quick and simple project to bring a little Halloween décor to your yard. I bought this ceiling tile years ago because I wanted to use it as a ceiling light medallion but I never got around to doing that project. The ceiling tile just sat around in my garage gathering dust. I saw a similar pumpkin decoration at a roadside stand, made out of corrugated metal and that's when the inspiration hit me to use the ceiling tile to make my own version.

Tin Ceiling Tile

Tin Snips

Marker

Dremel with cut off disk

Sandpaper

Saw

Wooden Stakes

Construction Adhesive

The first thing I did was draw my pumpkin using a blue marker. I wasn't going for perfection here just your basic everyday pumpkin. I used a blue marker because I could see the lines better than a black marker. You can see from my drawing that the lines aren't perfect. Consider them a rough guide for where to cut. Pumpkins are organic and far from perfect just like me.

I used a pair of straight cutting tin snips to cut out the perimeter of the pumpkin. Then I used my Dremel tool with a cut off disk to cut out the eyes, nose, and mouth. Lastly I sanded the edges so they wouldn't be so rough. Make sure to wear gloves when working with thin metal it can be very sharp and easily cause an injury.

*Tin snips come in different cutting angles or rather there are some tin snips that are for cutting straight lines and others for cutting curves that go left or curves that go right. If you are buying tin snips make sure you grab the correct pair for task at hand. They are sometimes sold in a 3 pack with all three types that will cover all your tin snipping needs.

I didn't want to screw through the front of the pumpkin so I decided to use some construction adhesive to attach the stakes to the pumpkin. Before attaching the stakes to the pumpkin I painted the bottom halves black so that they would not be as noticeable when placed outside. Using my caulk gun I liberally spread some construction adhesive on each stake and pushed them in to place I made sure to avoid any of the eye and mouth holes. I used some heavy metal weights to apply pressure on the stakes while the adhesive set.

*Bonus tip: Since I only used a little bit of the construction adhesive I wanted to save the rest for later use so I got a 3 inch long screw and shoved it in to the hole of the tube then tightly wrapped the tip in electrical tape. I use this method for storing caulk and silicone tubes too. It works fairly well. The last time I had used this particular tube of construction adhesive was about 1 month ago and it was still good.

Once the construction adhesive dried I staked the pumpkin decoration in our front garden bed to hopefully spread a little bit of Halloween happiness.

This is a quick and relatively easy project that has a lot of room for error since the pumpkin can be less than perfect. And I really like the look of the tin ceiling tile which sets this pumpkin apart, it is definitely one of a kind.