How to Create a Pumpkin Cooler for your Halloween Party


We’ve told you guys all about our love for fallโ€ฆthe fab fashion, yummy pumpkin flavored everything, and cozy touches that you can add to your home. But you might not know that we’re not super obsessed with Halloween. I mean don’t get us wrong here, it’s always fun to dress up and DIY a fun costume. But scary movies, haunted houses, crazy Halloween decorations? No thanks, not our thing.

So when Michaels (you knowโ€ฆthe ah-mazing craft store that we’ve grown up shopping at) came and asked us if we wanted to get into the Halloween spirit with their #TrickYourPumpkin sweepstakesโ€ฆwe really had to think about what kind of original project we could create. What could we do to stay true to our style, and our lukewarm relationship with this holiday? We knew we didn’t want our pumpkin to be too spooky, too gaudy, or too “not us.” At first, we came up with nothing. Zilch. Zip. Nada.

But then we took a trip to our local Michaels store for some inspiration, and we came up with this…

pumpkin cooler

โ€ฆa craft pumpkin turned wine cooler!

I mean how perfect is this little guy for your upcoming Halloween party? But before we uncork that bottle of wine and get our drink on, we need to chat about how easy this lil’ DIY project really is..

craft pumpkin

First, you’ll need a craft pumpkin. Michaels carries a wide variety of sizes and this one was the largest we could find. ย You could probably use a real pumpkin, but we figured we could use this pumpkin year after year for every annual Halloween party. Plus no pumpkin guts and goo…price tag

carving

Then it’s time to chop off the top of the pumpkin. As you can see, we free handed this part. You could draw a line around your pumpkin so you get a very even top. Or just go for it. Either way, make sure you use a sharp serrated knife and slowly chop through the top. Be extra careful during this step, we don’t want to hear any pumpkin cutting horror stories (even if it is the Halloween season.)carvingpumpkin coolerOnce you have your top cut off, you’re done with the hard work! Now it’s just a matter of decorating your cooler to fit your party theme. We wanted to keep things simple, with a touch of rustic. So Bridget stole a bow tie from that hubby of hers (Thanks Matt!) and we wrapped it around the base of our pumpkin. It didn’t fit around (Matt’s neck isn’t that wide!), so in the back, we used twine to tie the two sides of the bow tie together. Super simple.

trickyourpumpkin
Then we decorated our bar setup with some craft supplies we picked up at Michaels. Sparkly orange ribbon, fluffy ghost-white pom poms, even extra wine corks were all found at our fav craft store.

And how amazing is this large wooden slab? Yep, that too was found at Michaels. We’re guessing you could use it in a wide variety of ways, but it worked quite well as a tray for our wine glasses. I mean it doesn’t get any more rustic than that!ย 

cork

You can take your wine tasting party one step further with cute little tags and string for each wine glass. These little flag tags add personality and we know your party guests would appreciate all of the little details.ย trickyourpumpkin

Cheers to a fabulously festive Halloween season! (Now you can uncork that wine and get sippin’!)

Bridget&Casey


The Year of Casey

Hey there!

Iโ€™m Casey Finn, the voice behind The DIY Playbook. I’m a Chicago gal teaching you how to design, DIY, and maintain your home…by yourself! Learn more about me right here.