Painted Pumpkins

Today, I want to share my painted pumpkins with you.  I LOVE to carve pumpkins but because we can’t do that yet I thought I’d paint some.

First I purchased 3 medium sized pumpkins from The Home Depot.  These are the real deal, seeds and all.  I think I paid 3.50 for each pumpkin.

 I decided that my first pumpkin would be black with white polka dots. I painted the entire pumpkin black using basic craft paint.  If your worried about adhesion you could spray paint instead.  Since these pumpkins probably won’t last long after Halloween I chose to use the cheaper method.  You have to be careful with the pumpkins though as the craft paint comes off very easily once it is dry.

For the second and third pumpkins, I decided that I would paint them white. Each pumpkin took two coats of white craft paint.  I guess I could have primed them first but I opted for the quick and cheap route with basic white craft paint.  You could also spray your pumpkins with white spray paint.  I have not tried it so I can’t speak to whether or not there are issues with the paint adhering to the pumpkin.

 The next step for the black pumpkin was to paint on the white dots.  I used a flat round shaped foam brush that is typically used for stenciling.  They are really inexpensive and you can pick them up at most craft stores.  I dipped the brush into the white paint, pounced it once or twice on the paper plate that held the paint and then applied the brush to the pumpkin.  I randomly painted the polka dots on the pumpkin.The brush gave nice round polka dots.

 For the third and final pumpkin I chose to put the letter “C” for our last name.  To do this, I printed out the letter using the font I wanted and the size I wanted.  Then I turned the paper over to the back side and using a pencil colored all around the outline of the letter.  To apply the letter to the pumpkin I cut it into four equal pieces and taped it to the pumpkin with the printed side up and the pencil side against the pumpkin.  Then I traced the letter.  As I traced the outline of the letter, the pencil on the reverse side was transferring on to the pumpkin.  It was really a very easy process and one that I use often to transfer letters onto wood when making signs.  I’m sorry that I don’t have any pictures of this process but I didn’t have my camera with me at the time.  Now that I transferred the letter “C” onto the pumpkin, I painted it in with black craft paint.

 Once the pumpkins dried completely, I coated them with a coat of clear laquer.  I’m hopeful that it will prevent the craft paint from running if it should rain between now and Halloween.  Keep your fingers crossed!

Here is what the pumpkins look like displayed on the stairs leading to our front door.  You can see I had lots of help from Max the golden retriever and Coco the cat.  They were more like supervisors than helpers though! lol.

 I couldn’t decide which pumpkin I liked better at the bottom, the checked pumpkin or the polka dot so I switched them around.  I’m still not sure which order I like better.  What do you think?