Pretty Pumpkins for Fall

Set a festive tone with a table filled with pumpkins, gourds and bittersweet. Raid the cupboard for display ideas such as bowls or cake plates. The rich fall colors of gourds and pumpkins make them a simple way to create an elegant centerpiece.

Show your guests you're glad they came with a welcoming message painted on a pumpkin. Use acrylic paint to create a message and place the pumpkin and gourds in a wheelbarrow.

Arrange flowers in pretty fall hues in a vase and tuck in a few autumn leaves. Group several small pumpkins around the vase for a picturesque autumnal arrangement.

Create a stand-out centerpiece by using an out-of-the-ordinary pumpkin as your focal point. Here, a greenish gray pumpkin was et atop a cake plate and accented with two smaller pumpkins. The look is completed with a branch of bittersweet, twisted around the pumpkins and left to cascade across the table.

Although these flowers are pretty on their own, the arrangement gets an extra special touch with a pumpkin vase. The flowers were arranged in a glass vase, which was placed inside a hollowed-out yellow pumpkin.

Craft a set of candleholders from gourds by simply cutting off the tops and hollowing out the centers. Place in a metal tray filled with green hedge apples for an easy autumn display.

Scraping out the inside of the pumpkin to a thinner depth will make it easier to carve intricate designs like these. Use wood-carving tools to carve the desired designs into the pumpkin skin.

White pumpkins are becoming more popular and add an air of elegance to indoor or outdoor decor. Leave them as is, or decorate with paint or gilding for a more formal look.

A pyramid of fall fruits and miniature squash plated on a birch-log pedestal is a simple but beautiful centerpiece.

Little gourds can do great things. Try creating these table weights from mini-gourds for festive functionality at an outdoor dinner party. Measure the tabletop and add enough yardage for a 6-inch drop plus a 1-inch hem. Hem with fusible tape and an iron. To make the corner flaps, notch a 5-inch square from each corner and hem using fusible tape. Add grommets with a kit from a crafts or fabrics store.

An elegant centerpiece is as simple as gathering a few mini pumpkins on a tray. Place them on candle holders in place of candles, or carve out the center of the pumpkin and place the candle inside. Try spray painting the pumpkins first to pull the whole display together.

White pumpkins are the perfect canvas to use as a backdrop for a spooky scene. Trace a design like this haunted house onto black paper and cut out. Attach to pumpkin using pushpins or craft glue. Also try adding beads or rhinestones for a unique look.

Flag your guests down for dinner with personalized place cards made from business-card-size paper pinned on a mini-pumpkin.

Remove the tops of Lumina pumpkins and hollow them out to make vases. Here, an assortment of cattails, leaves, seasonal berries, and orange tulips makes a memorable autumn display for a table centerpiece. Place watertight containers inside each vase to keep flowers fresh and prevent the pumpkin from getting soggy.

When creating a centerpiece from multiple pumpkins, make sure that it looks interesting from all angles. Using pumpkins of different heights and letting the foliage spill over the edge in all directions helps create that interest.

Use old pitchforks, rake heads, and an antique apple picker as wall sconces in a unique fall display.

Urns and planters make perfect bases for pumpkin topiaries. Simply embellish the towers with bits of garden moss tucked around the pumpkins.

Start with a clean, dry pumpkin. Lightly sand the surface and apply paint sealer to prevent flaking. Create a design with acrylic paint, then finish with a top-coat sealer.

The white hue of a Lumina pumpkin works perfectly for a funny, skeletal-looking pumpkin face.

Carve a cute pumpkin face without the hassle! This kit helps make it happen.

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Weathered terra-cotta pots are the base for this simple display. Set pumpkins in or atop them, and pair with an explosion of rich burgundy dahlias accented with pumpkin leaves.

An assortment of mini pumpkins and fresh fall leaves knotted on twine creates a fall window swag.

White gourds become miniature sculptures when displayed on tiny pedestals cut from old table legs and balusters.

Add interest to a porch display by selecting pumpkins in small, medium, and large sizes. Set against a backdrop of a tall cornstalk bundle, the white pumpkin really stands out as the focal point.

An unusual carving technique gives this pumpkin a checkerboard glow. When carving, etch just the skin of the pumpkin without slicing all the way through the shell. The deeper you cut, the brighter the radiance. Nest your clever creation in a twig wreath accented with artificial berry vines.

Though this pumpkin wreath was hung on a door, it could have easily been set on a table for a pretty centerpiece.

Greet your guests at the door with a pumpkin house number sign. Stack small, medium, and large Cinderella pumpkins (removing the stems, except for the top one), and trace stenciled number outlines using a crafts knife. Then scrape the pumpkin skin out of the stenciled numbers, revealing the lighter pumpkin flesh underneath.

This pumpkin was cut in half, then had the cut edges carved into triangles. Inside the bottom half, some damp floral foam helps keep fresh branches and flowers from wilting. Secure the top to the bottom using sturdy skewers or toothpicks.

Fill an assortment of glasses with water and float mini pumpkin gourds inside. A teddy bear sunflower set in a shallow dipping bowl is a frilly dinner companion.

A variety of potted plants, including several colors of mums, introduces a bit of fall color to the corner of this front porch. One pretty pumpkin looks right at home and can be carved with a face later in October.

Unique patterns, a house number, and candlesticks embellish this trio of pumpkins perched on the stairs up to the front door.

As elegant as a dancer's dress, this pumpkin dons stripes of sequins in silver and black.

Keep pumpkins in top shape by leaving them uncarved for most of October. This pleasing display of pumpkins, gourds, and potted mums will greet visitors until Halloween rolls around.