Painted Pumpkins for Halloween and Fall

Painted pumpkins! They seem to be one of the biggest trends in fall diy decor right now. I saw soooo many different fun painted pumpkins on pinterest. I decided to jump on the bandwagon and make some of my own.

For my painted pumpkins I invested in faux craft pumpkins from Michaels, they were fifty percent off at the time which felt like a total steal. I like that I will be able to DIY these once and use them for years to come. AND if I decided I am bored with them after a few seasons I can repaint them. You could also do this on real pumpkins too if you like changing things up every single year. 

Materials:

• Pumpkin fake or real
• Paint 
• Cornstarch
• Foam brush
• Stickers 
• Matte Mod Podge 
• Clear Gorilla Glue (optional) 

Step 1 

First I chose my paint. I had some left over from my shed makeover and a rocking chair makeover. I liked the grey and white so I used those.

To give the chalk paint effect I mixed cornstarch into the paint. The more texture you want the more cornstarch you should add. There is no exact recipe. I would start with a little and then keep adding until you are happy with the consistency. I ended up using quite a bit and it gave a really nice texture. 

I did three coats of paint. The paint was a bit difficult to get coverage since it was so chunky, so I definitely suggest just doing several coats rather than trying to get it all in one go.

Step 2 

Once the paint is completely dry it’s time to add stickers. There are so many options here: you can do individual words, you can do phrases on one pumpkin, or you can do a phrase like I did across several pumpkins.

Before you go shopping for your stickers make sure to know how many letters you are going to need so you can buy enough packs to spell out what you want. No one likes a trip back to the craft store when they are in the middle of a project! When choosing stickers I found ones that were flexible. Some stickers I looked were stiff, I didn’t think those would stick.

I found the flattest side of the pumpkin and then just eyeballed the placement of the stickers. If you are anything like my mom though you’ll use a ruler and measure everything out. To each their own I say!

After the stickers were in place I gently went over them with Matte Mod Podge to seal them down. I did have one sticker that DID NOT want to stick down. I used a little dot of clear Gorilla glue to get the baby stuck down. Be careful though if you do this it’s so easy to get the glue EVERYWHERE. 

That’s it! They are that simple! The only easier fall decor project I have tried is these log ghosts I recently made. My painted pumpkins are going to go on my front porch ,but these will look great anywhere. When Halloween is over I am going to just flip them around so the trick or treat faces the house and Voila they are no longer halloween pumpkins but fall pumpkins!