If you think "diorama" and have flashbacks to your fourth grade history project, you're not alone. But during Halloween season, dioramas take on new meaning — they're scenes set inside a hollowed pumpkin. They're totally festive and fun to make. Plus, pumpkin dioramas are on-trend and can really add a unique touch to your decor. Think a fairy garden, but with a spooky or autumn theme.
The best part of this craft is that if you're worried about the mess and danger that come with carving a jack-o'-lantern, you can bypass all that.
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Make a trip to your local craft store. More than likely, it will have faux pumpkins already carved for you to make your own diorama. If not, you can carve a hole from a faux pumpkin yourself with a craft knife. You can even cut out any shapes in advance, and then have your kids help you place the items inside. Or purchase some Halloween-themed figurines for your diorama.
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Here are some inspiring pumpkin dioramas to get you started in dreaming up and creating your own imaginative Halloween decoration. It really is pretty simple — and the results are gorgeous!
Eerie Pumpkin Diorama
This pumpkin diorama would look amazing on the mantel above your fireplace. The big trick that A Pumpkin and a Princess gives is to place a piece of Styrofoam on the inside bottom of the pumpkin and cover it with moss. This will give height to the decorations that you add to the inside of the diorama.
Haunted House Pumpkin Diorama
Lia Griffith gave her pumpkin diorama a spooky theme. She enhanced it by painting the inside of the pumpkin a dark color. She chose a gray blue, but you can also opt for black.
Skeleton and Spider Pumpkin Diorama
Mom 4 Real transformed her pumpkin diorama into a creepy house for skeletons and spiders. She cut out a door and windows from a faux pumpkin and painted the inside black. Then she added all of her favorite creepy crawlers to the scene.
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Scarecrow Pumpkin Diorama
Décor to Adore gave her pumpkin diorama a scarecrow theme, complete with some hay, mini pumpkins, and a crow. You can find a lot of variety of miniature decorations at craft stores.
Bat Pumpkin Diorama
We love these simple yet sophisticated pumpkin dioramas from Make It and Love It. She painted the inside of the pumpkin black, glued a glittery paper moon to the back, and hung paper bats from the top of the pumpkin. She added black tea lights to give it the inside of the pumpkin a glow. So chic!
Shadow Box Pumpkin Diorama
Aren't' these pumpkin dioramas adorable? They are pretty inexpensive to decorate as well. Go to Crazy Little Projects for free downloadable printables that you can simply cut out and then glue inside the pumpkin. Easy as pumpkin pie.
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Not-So-Scary Pumpkin Diorama
Even if you're not so into the spookiness of Halloween, you can still make a pumpkin diorama. Just give it a fall woodland theme like Hello Lidy did. The best part of this version of the pumpkin diorama is that you can keep it out up until Thanksgiving.
Light-Up Pumpkin Diorama
Give your diorama an extra spooky feel by adding a string of lights to it. The Art of Doing Stuff suggests cutting a small hole in the back of the pumpkin with a small carving knife so you can stick the fairy lights through. If you can score battery-operated lights, even better.
Spooky Halloween Terrarium Diorama
Don't want to spend a lot of money on decorations for your pumpkin diorama? No worries. Chelsey from The Paper Mama offers free printables of a haunted house and bats to decorate your pumpkin with.
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Candy Pumpkin Diorama
Halloween is really all about candy. Lolly Jane took the candy idea and ran with it for their pumpkin diorama. The bloggers used paint and Peeps to decorate their pumpkin.
Frightening Pumpkin Diorama
Give your diorama a furious feel, like We Know Stuff did by painting the inside of a black faux pumpkin black. Then add moss, rocks, and twigs from your backyard. Don't forget plastic animal figurines to set the scene.
Toy-Inspired Pumpkin Diorama
Add some of your kids' favorite figurines to your pumpkin like Callie from Southern Bluebird Day did. She gave the pumpkin the extra Mickey touch by adding felt mouse ears to the top of the pumpkin.
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Haunted Pumpkin Diorama
Essy Jae gave her pumpkin diorama a spooky feel complete with mini fairy lights, little pumpkins, and paper house, which she gives a template for. Best yet, on her blog, she even offers a how-to video.
Nighttime Pumpkin Diorama
Add a pinch of spookiness to your Halloween decorations with this easy-to-make pumpkin diorama by My Craft Spot. Make it stand out by displaying it with some real pumpkins.
Pumpkin Patch Diorama
Check out this adorable pumpkin patch Halloween diorama from The Cards We Drew. Decorate with faux grass or moss to the bottom of the pumpkin, silhouette trees, and lots of those cute little candy pumpkins. The hardest part of this project will be not eating all the candy.
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