A Touch of Southern Grace : Pumpkin Decorating

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Pumpkin Decorating

As girly and as wimpy as it sounds I have never enjoyed carving into the pumpkins and scooping the pumpkin seeds and slim out, on the other hand I have always enjoyed decorating a pumpkin. Now, despite my dislike of cleaning the pumpkin out carving one is always fun, but I thought I’d mix it up this year and go a different avenue. Since I decided to forgo the traditional carving I opted for a painted pumpkin and a glitter pumpkin, because well lets face it, painting can be fun and glitter makes everything better!

I did the blue willow inspired pumpkin first. For some reason I thought it was going be super easy, and honestly it wasn’t that hard just a little time consuming. A few weeks ago when I was scrolling through my Instagram one of the pictures I came across were some blue and white pumpkins Karolyn from The Relished Roost created. So, of course after I saw that photo and because of my love for basically all things blue and white I though why not paint a blue willow inspired pumpkin.

Supplies Needed:

- Ghost pumpkin

- Pencil

- White tempera paint

- Blue tempera paint

- Black tempera paint

- Paintbrush

- Paper plate to mix colors

- Water and paper towel to rinse off paintbrushes

How I did it:

I first lightly sketched a picture on the pumpkin with a pencil before I painted the pumpkin. I decided not to paint the pumpkin white all over before I started drawing the blue willow print because I liked the antique and thought it would look good with the different shades of blue. The main paint color I used was blue, of course, and then I mixed the blue paint with either the black or the white or sometimes both depending on which shade of blue I wanted to use. I used the finest tip paintbrush I had and painted over the pencil drawing I did before hand.

The second pumpkin I did is a gold glitter polka dot pumpkin. Glitter + Polka Dots + A Little Kate Spade = Perfection In My Heart! I have seen a few pumpkins glitter pumpkins on Pinterest and other websites and have been wanting to create one of my own.

Supplies Needed:

- Ghost pumpkin

- White tempera paint

- Paintbrush

- Gold Glitter

- Elmer’s Rubber Cement Glue

- 2” Circle Stencil {I used this one}

- Water and paper towel to rinse off paintbrushes

How I did it:

Before I put the gold glitter dots on the pumpkin I first painted the entire white using the largest paintbrush I had to make quick work of it. I though painting the pumpkin stark white would make the gold glitter dots pop a little more. After painting the entire pumpkin white let it sit to dry 1-2 hours depending on how thickly you applied the paint. After the paint has dried it is time to make the gold glitter polka dots! To make the dots I cut out the 2 inch circle on my printable circle stencil sheet {click here to get the stencil}, I then placed the stencil on the pumpkin, painted the inside of the circle with Elmer’s Rubber Cement Glue then shake the gold glitter right on top of the glue, repeat this step to achieve as many gold glitter dots as your heart desires. I would advise you to do the glitter outside or over a sink to keep it contained – I did my pumpkin outside and the glitter was everywhere.