How to make traditional stacked pumpkin topiaries for fall with artificial pumpkins. Do you have large and heavy flower planters flanking your front door that can't be moved? This is a great way to decorate them for the autumn season.

They are easy to make and the possibilities for color and how you embellish them are endless. I also share a tip on how to prevent the lightweight faux pumpkins from taking flight from a strong gust of wind.

Traditional Fall Outdoor Faux Pumpkin Topiaries

If you prefer a less traditional option, I share a couple of ideas toward the bottom of the post along with ideas for decorating the flower planters for the holidays as well.

Larger artificial pumpkins can cost a small fortune. To help cut costs either take advantage of coupons at your favorite craft store or wait until the end of the season when they are on clearance to use next year.

What Type Of Artificial Pumpkins Do I Need For Outdoor Stacked Pumpkin Topiaries?

For outdoor stacked pumpkin topiaries, you'll want to use craft pumpkins that are made of thick foam or plastic pumpkins. You'll want two large pumpkins for the base and two slightly smaller and/or different-shaped pumpkins for the top.

Unfortunately, I could only find one size and shape for mine but that's okay, they are fine too. Don't be concerned if the only artificial pumpkins you can find are the wrong color. They can easily be painted with chalk paint, multi-surface paint, or spray paint in whatever color you wish.

What You'll Need To Make It

This post contains affiliate links so you can see what products I used or recommend for this project. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from any qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.

Supply List

2 Pedestal or Large Flower Pots
4 Large Faux Pumpkins in two different sizes
2 Spools 2 1/2-inch Wired Fall Ribbon
1 pkg 1 1/2-inch 1 pkg 1 1/2-inch Wood Letters (optional)
Raw Umber Acrylic Craft Paint
Fall Floral Picks
1 Bag Natural Raffia Ribbon or straw
2 Wooden Dowels or Garden Stakes
Hot Glue Gun

What Type Of Planter Do You Need For Outdoor Stacked Pumpkin Topiaries?

Ideally, large pedestal-style flower pots are the most esthetically pleasing for stacked pumpkin topiaries. Tall square wooden planters or tall galvanized pots are a nice option for fall too.

But if you have large flower pots flanking your door that are too heavy to move, absolutely use them for your stacked pumpkins. You can have the stacked pumpkins free-standing, however, you'll need to fill them with sand or rocks to keep them from blowing away.

How Do You Glue Artificial Stacked Pumpkins Together

Before stacking the pumpkins, we'll need to cut a couple of holes first in the artificial pumpkins.

• First, carefully cut a hole in the base of the top pumpkin large enough so the stem of the bottom pumpkin can be hidden inside. Cut it with either a retractable craft knife or use a hole saw drill bit and power drill.
• If the stems on your pumpkins can be removed, skip the previous step. Keep the extra stem for future crafting potential.
• Set the smaller pumpkin on top of the larger one and glue them together with either a hot glue gun, E6000 Glue, or any glue that bonds well with plastic.

Adding Fall Ribbon

You will need one roll of wired fall ribbon per pumpkin topiary. Tie the ribbon in either a large loopy bow or a simple bow with long tails to trail down the front of the pumpkins.

If you are like me and all thumbs when making bows, here's a link to a helpful bow-making video tutorial or you can cheat like I do and use this bow-making tool.

Fall and Harvest Painted Wood Letters

Embellishing the fall ribbon tails with wood letters is completely optional. Use small 1 1/2-inch wood letters to spell the words FALL and HARVEST. Paint just the front of the letters with acrylic craft paint in the color Raw Umber.

Attach the letters onto the ribbon tails with a hot glue gun then attach the ribbon onto the top of each pumpkin with a dab of hot glue.

Trim the ends of the ribbon tails by folding the ribbon in half vertically and cutting at an angle from the bottom towards the fold.

Embellish Top Pumpkins With Faux Fall Maple Leaves

Layer large faux maple leaves on the top pumpkin with dabs of hot glue. You can keep it simple with just two on either side of the stem or layer them with some trailing down.

Embellish Pumpkins With Floral Fall Picks

Add a floral fall pick in the center or off to the side of the bow with a hot glue gun. I found my cute cornucopia picks at Michael's.

Now we're ready to head outside and set the stacked pumpkin topiaries on our flower pots.

Lay a generous amount of straw or natural raffia ribbon over the soil of your flower planters before setting the stacked pumpkins in place. Leaving some spilling out of the flower pots is a nice touch too.

How Do You Prevent Artificial Stacked Pumpkins From Blowing Away Outdoors?

To prevent the topiaries from blowing away from a big gust of wind, insert a wooden dowel or garden stake into the bottom pumpkin. To do this you'll need to cut a small hole slightly larger than the wooden dowel with a retractable craft knife. Set the topiary over the dowel and you're all set.

Displaying stacked pumpkin topiaries flanked on either side of a front door adds such a welcoming touch during the fall season. I receive so many compliments from our guests and passersby.

Hanging a traditional fall wreath on the front door that compliments the stacked pumpkins is a nice touch as well. I have a tutorial on how to recycle an old wreath to look new again.

If you prefer not decorating with traditional fall colors, then here are alternative non-traditional stacked pumpkin topiaries using these same pumpkins. But this time they are painted black and white and embellished with copper elements. 

But if you want to go kind of rustic abstract, I added a third pumpkin to make these unique rust-activated stacked pumpkin topiaries.

Ideas For Flower Pots When Removing Stacked Pumpkins After Fall

Once the autumn season is over I'll remove the stacked pumpkins from the large flower pots flanking our front door and decorate them for the holidays in one of two ways.

If I decide to decorate early, I'll decorate them in set-and-forget holiday planters with faux greens. No watering is required and they'll still look fresh well into the new year.

But if I decide to decorate for the holidays in December, then I'll decorate the holiday planters with fresh greens. I share a helpful tip in that post on how to decorate large flower pots indoors when you live in a freezing climate.

For more pumpkin inspiration you may like these 12 DIY pumpkin ideas that are easy on the wallet. Thanks for stopping by the Interior Frugalista today! I hope you were inspired by the traditional stacked pumpkin topiaries for fall.

Almost all of our DIY ideas have step-by-step tutorials so why not get your budget DIY on and subscribe. You can also find us on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

If you have any questions, please leave them in the comment section below or the Contact Me tab at the top to drop me an email. I love hearing from you!

If you enjoyed this outdoor stacked pumpkin topiary tutorial, I'd be so thankful if you shared it with a friend and pinned it to your favorite board on Pinterest.

I share my projects at these inspiring link parties.