Craft Time...Pumpkin Shovel...

 First, a little reminder: If you haven't entered my Gooseberry Patch Cookbook giveaway, you still have a little bit of time to enter!  Giveaway ends on Friday.  Click the link above to enter.  Go ahead...I'll wait!



On my list of fall crafts to complete, I have several crafts that aren't kid's crafts.  I've decided that I want to start making some crafts to enjoy myself.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy watching my girls be creative and decorating with their creations brightens our home, but sometimes it's nice to do something for myself...besides shopping.:)

I was at a store last year and saw a shovel with a pumpkin face torched in it.  My first thought was, "Oh!  I want that!"  But then, after I looked at the price, I thought, "Brad could make that!"  So I took a picture and texted it to him (isn't modern technology great...sometimes) and asked if he could make it for me.  He said yes as if I had any doubt that he could;)

My MIL even had a shovel lying around that she was willing to give me and it was painted black.  The shovels at the store were rusty, which was fine, but I thought I would like the look of it painted black.

Now, I will tell you, you have to use a torch to cut through the metal of the shovel.  If you don't have one, find a friend that does!

The first thing I did was draw the face on the shovel with a piece of welding chalk.  I'm sure regular chalk would work just as well,but my husband handed me the welding chalk and I didn't ask any questions because he knows more about metal than I do:)

 Then Brad went to work cutting with the torch.  I thought this step looked pretty easy and that I probably could have handled it, but then I remembered I'm pretty accident prone and I probably would have just set myself on fire!

Next, he sanded it down because the torch makes some rough edges...

 Then I spray painted the shovel black to cover up where the torch had burnt the paint...

After the paint dried, I added a canvas bow and set it outside for display...