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Gourd Craft Ideas
Do you gear part of your landscaping to birdwatching? Then consider a new (but related) hobby: gourd craft. Birdhouse gourds are classified as Lagenaria, along with such other "hard-shell" gourds as the bushel. One of the gourd craft ideas I share with you is how to make Halloween jack-o-lanterns from the bushel type. Gourd vines, like squash vines, can essentially function as novel ground covers, with a little help from mulch.
A Different Kind of Halloween Jack-O'-Lantern
Do you the know the difference between "hard-shell" and ornamental gourds? The former can be used to make birdhouses. You can also carve one into a jack-o-lantern superior to what you can get from a pumpkin, because it won't rot. Yet unlike plastic jack-o-lanterns, it's still natural. You'll like this gourd craft idea so much you may decide to carve a few, decorating each in a novel way.
Gourd Decorating
Gourd craft ideas are easy to implement, if you take it a step at a time (which I recommend for beginners, lest you become overwhelmed). That's what I do here, breaking down all the steps in detail, illustrating the essentials of this sample project along the way with photos. Caution: this activity can be addictive for certain personalities!
Visit Gourd Festivals for Gourd Craft Ideas!
As unfamiliar as you may be with so-called "hard-shell" gourds, perhaps an even more alien concept is that of people holding gourd festivals or "shows." But such things do exist, I assure you! I have been to the Ohio Gourd Show twice, myself and tell you here all about what you can learn at such a festival.
Creating Artwork on Hard-Shell Gourds
Consult these tutorials from J.K. Stacy Designs to learn gourd craft ideas. They present projects with hard-shell gourds, replete with stunning photos of the finished artwork (the images load slowly but they're worth the wait!). These step-by-step tutorials will be useful to the gourd art veteran and inspiring to novices just catching "gourd fever."