I went to Orlando last month with some people from work, and one of my crafty co-workers noted that craft pumpkins are huge in Florida since regular pumpkins don’t fair too well in the hot southern sun. (Yikes, can you imagine?) My friend’s brother is an Orlando resident and graphic artist. He’s also a great craft pumpkin artist, too.

My friend got me my own craft pumpkin to try out this year. While most people carve these and save them from year to year, I decided to take a different approach. I made mine into a bit of a disco pumpkin, using sequins and sequin pins to keep everything in place. I tried the brand from Michael’s, and found it very easy to keep the pins in place. However, I noticed at JoAnn they carry the “FunKin” brand. These appeared to be a lot tougher and heavier than the Michael’s brand. Has anyone tried FunKins? Any tips or tricks?

When I was at JoAnn yesterday, FunKins were flying off the shelves. I’ve heard about a pumpkin shortage this year that are causing prices to go sky high. Perhaps more and more people are crafting with faux pumpkins for 2007? Who out there in the blogosphere have tried them?