DIY
How to Make a
Halloween Hamburger Pumpkin
By Lindsay Ponta
It can feel a little sad
8 Washington FAMILY OCTOBER 2020
SUPPLIES • Craft pumpkin
• Serrated bread knife or saw
• Corrugated cardboard
• Pencil
• Scissors and/or X-ACTO knife
• Hot glue gun
• White foam board
• Acrylic paint in red, white and orange
• Paintbrush
• Craft foam sheets in yellow, light green and
dark green
• Light green cardstock
Photos courtesy: Lindsay Ponta
knowing that Halloween will look different this
year with social distancing recommendations still in place. That’s why it’s a great
time to go over the top on Halloween decorations! You’ll lift your family’s spirits—
and your neighborhood’s, too—by decking out the front yard. Go with spooky, silly
or cute, but whichever theme you choose, I hope you’ll find a place for this DIY
hamburger pumpkin.

You can find all the supplies to make this project, including the pumpkin, at your
local craft store. Many shops are still offering curbside pickup, so you can practice
safe social distancing while shopping. Alternatively, you should be able to find
everything you need on Amazon.

My biggest piece of advice with this project is to relax and not yield to any perfec-
tionist tendencies you may have. The charm of this hamburger pumpkin is in its playful
look, and nobody will be checking to make sure all your shapes are perfect circles.

And have fun! Work together as a family to make a platter of burgers or assorted
fast food items. Challenge each other to use as many upcycled or recycled elements
as possible. Add your favorite burger toppings. Go wild! n



INSTRUCTIONS
1. Cut the craft pumpkin in half with a serrated knife or a saw, if you
have one.

2. Find something round that’s the same size or slightly larger in
diameter than the pumpkin (a salad bowl works well), and use it to
trace 5-6 circles onto corrugated cardboard. Cut the circles out, and
hot glue them into a stack. This will be your hamburger patty.

3. Trace a couple of smaller circles onto white foam board, and cut
them out. Use red acrylic paint to turn them into tomato slices. If
you don’t have paint on hand, grab a few markers from your back-
to-school stash and draw the details instead of painting.

4. Cut three or four imperfect circles out of dark green craft foam sheets.

These will be the pickles, so size them accordingly. Cut the same
number of slightly smaller light green foam circles. Use a hole punch
or your scissors to snip a few small holes into them to represent the
seeds. Hot glue the light green circles on top of the dark green ones.

5. Cut a square of yellow foam for the cheese. It should be large
enough to slightly hang over the edge of the hamburger patty for a
melty look.

6. Cut a couple large pieces from your green cardstock shaped
roughly like blunt hearts. Crinkle each piece a bit to give them a
texture like lettuce. Fold the narrower ends into a pleat just like
you see in skirts or dresses to give the lettuce leaves a bit of height
and stability.

7. Assemble the hamburger by hot gluing the various pieces
together. Lindsay Ponta created the DIY and lifestyle website Shrimp Salad
Circus in 2009 to inspire busy women to live perfectly imperfect
creative lives. She lives in Silver Spring. Find easy DIYs and recipes at
shrimpsaladcircus.com. WashingtonFAMILY.com 9