Once that was squared away, I covered the table with large sheets of paper, squeezed some off-white acrylic paint onto a paper plate, covered my 3-year old with an mama-sized t-shirt, and let her go to town. She’s not keen on getting acrylic on her hands, so I showed her how to twist the pumpkin by its stem, and then paint that part last.
Acrylic Painted Pumpkins
I’ll keep this short since I’m gearing up for the holiday and I know most of you are busy yourselves, making travel plans (perhaps with small kids…no small feat!), shopping for basters (don’t wait too long — they will run out!), and making Thanksgiving crafts. Speaking of which, I just spotted these nifty pumpkin place cards, and have visions that a simpler cardboard version would be manageable for my 3 year old.
I had another vision, recently realized, of painting our Halloween pumpkins white and calling it a centerpiece. Our house feels mighty cluttered at the moment, and I know it’ll feel even more so once all our relatives come into town, so adding some soothing white seemed to be just the thing we needed. N thought the we should paint them all green, so we struck a compromise that she could paint as many as she wanted with green paint if we could first paint mine white. Don’t you love compromises?!
Once that was squared away, I covered the table with large sheets of paper, squeezed some off-white acrylic paint onto a paper plate, covered my 3-year old with an mama-sized t-shirt, and let her go to town. She’s not keen on getting acrylic on her hands, so I showed her how to twist the pumpkin by its stem, and then paint that part last.
Three pumpkins later, and this is what we’ve got! I’m still working on the whole table set-up, and may move these to a side table, but I think it’s a pretty good start.
Thank you!
I apologize up front if I’m not quick to reply to your comments or emails this week. I’ll be taking a little blog break until Monday so that I can enjoy some quality time with the family.
Thanks to each of you for your ongoing commitment to this site. If you’ve ever left a comment, thank you! Our conversations keep me going and fuel me with more ideas. And if you’ve never left a comment, I appreciate you too! I read so many blogs and myself, usually on the go, and rarely get a chance to say the “hello” that I’d love to say if I could just sit down and find a moment to type. By showing up here at TinkerLab, I’ve become closer to friends I already had, I’ve made some wonderful new friends, and continue to thank the universe for the opportunity to have and build a community of like-minded individuals who make my heart flutter.
Supplies for Gingham Painted Pumpkins
- real or artificial pumpkin
- push pins
- pencil
- craft paint (I used DecoArt acrylic craft paint in Warm White and Deep Midnight Blue.)
- paint brushes
- paper plate
How do you paint a gingham pattern on a pumpkin?
- First, use a pencil to plan your pattern. Draw in the lines, paying attention to the width and keeping your stripes evenly spaced and consistent. Similarly plan out your vertical stripes.
- Next, I marked a B to indicate the stripes that I wanted to paint blue. This steps ensures that your pattern will work out well.
- Before you begin painting, place three push pins at the bottom of the pumpkin to ensure it doesn’t stick to your work space.
- Then, mix your dark color paint with the white paint to create a lighter shade.
- Use the lighter shade to paint the stripes.
- Once all of the horizontal and vertical stripes are dry, fill in the overlapping areas with the dark colored paint.
That’s it! When your pumpkin is dry, remove the push pins from the bottom and enjoy!
In less than an hour, these gingham painted pumpkins were complete and ready to add to my fall decor! So simple and so pretty!
What kind of paint will stick to pumpkins?
Acrylic paint is the best choice for painting pumpkins. This water-based paint dries quickly, has good coverage and is easy to clean up. Acrylic craft paint is fairly inexpensive and comes in a wide variety of colors. What colors would you like to use?
Thank you so much for visiting today! Please let me know if you make a gingham painted pumpkin. I would love to see a picture! Let’s connect on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or here on the blog!
“Dirty Pour” Marbled Pumpkin
When I was at the Plaid Crafts Headquarters some time ago, I got to do one of my FAVORITE crafting projects to date! I was taught how to make a marbled pumpkin with acrylic paint. The idea is really easy, but there is an art to this, so I encourage you to practice a few times before doing anything large or expensive. The best thing about it is that you can personal the project any way that you like with a variety of colors and even get glittery if you want to! Check out my Facebook Page for a full video on the “pour” for this project (it’s pretty cool!).
Here’s what you need to make this Marbled Pumpkin:
**This post has been updated with new products that make this project much easier!
- Dowel Rods
- Tin Tray to catch paint
- Plastic Pumpkin
- 4 plastic cups
For the pouring you can either use:
OR
2. OPTION TWO: Use a pre-mixed marbling Paint
The plus to using pouring medium is that you can use ANY color you want. The plus to using marbling paint is that it’s already pre-mixed for you and you can modify colors by mixing the paints.
How to OPTION ONE:
Start with your choice of paint colors and select the three colors you wish to use for this project. I ended up using about 1/2-3/4 of each bottle I used and I went with Royal Blue, White, and Yellow for this project. I want to give the pumpkin to my son’s teacher for his desk, so I used school colors.
Next, I went outside on my back walkway to do this project. It’s MESSY you guys. So either be prepared with a plastic tablecloth and newspaper inside or just do this outside.
Get four cups ready, you’ll put paint in three and set one aside to combine all the paint. Start by pouring the recommended pouring medium into each cup. Next, add about 1/2 the bottle of paint into each cup, so you’ll have three cups full of paint. Then use a dowel rod and stir each cup well. The paint should run fairly easily, so if it’s too thick, add more pouring medium.
HOW TO OPTION TWO:
If you decide to use Marbling Paint, then you simply layer the paint into one cup, do not mix, and then pour over top of the pumpkin. You can skip the steps of mixing the pouring medium and acrylic craft paint.
Once mixed, use the fourth empty cup to combine all three paints. They should NOT mix too much because of the ingredients added into them…it should look something like this:
Then prepare your pumpkin. I stuck a dowel rod up through the bottom and then poured the paint over top of my pumpkin, gently spinning the pumpkin as I went to spread the paint evenly across. The paint creates a great marbled look. You can even gently reuse the paint at the bottom of your pan if you’re running low.
Once you get the desired look, use your dowel rods to let your pumpkin drip dry.
I let mine dry for 24 hours, then painted the stem light green to match the pumpkin.
Check out my Facebook Page for a full video on the “pour” for this project (it’s pretty cool!).
Pin it for later…
