DIY Embellished Faux Pumpkin
Hi everyone! I’m Laura from Pet Scribbles, and I’m very excited to be a monthly contributor here on PinkWhen! I love making crafts and home decorations that have a vintage vibe to them, and when you combine that with my favorite season (Fall!), you get this pretty blue pumpkin!
This is an easy and quick craft to make, and you can use any size faux pumpkins that are available at craft stores and dollar stores.
Supplies:
I used a large-sized faux white pumpkin:
I also used Americana Decor Chalky Finish Paint in my favorite “Vintage” color, Dazzling Metallics glaze in Renaissance Brown, Americana Decor Creme Wax (clear), paper towels, white rag, paintbrushes, waxing brush (optional), screwdriver, straight pins and toothpicks. I also used a set of faux leaves (found at Michaels), and a wood flower I found on clearance that I painted with a liquid gold gilding by Martha Stewart.
Steps:
1. Paint your faux pumpkin in a pretty blue color. (Makes sense, right? Can’t have a pretty blue pumpkin without a pretty blue color!) I only needed one coat of the chalky finish paint.
I used a medium brush to paint the pumpkin all over, keeping a spot unpainted (shown above) where I could hold onto the pumpkin. Chalky finish paints dry quickly, so I didn’t wait long to paint over this remaining spot.
Use a small brush when painting around any detail work such as the stem of the pumpkin:
2. Using a small paintbrush, apply thin lines of brown glaze along several – but not all – of the vertical grooves in the pumpkin. (I just eyeballed it, rather than measuring or counting grooves.) After you paint each line, take a paper towel and wipe off the glaze just by running your finger down the groove. The glaze will stick to the crevices and cracks, and provide a shadow effect, giving the pumpkin more dimension.
3. Add some clear creme wax to the leftover brown glaze and mix them together with a couple of toothpicks.
4. Apply the wax with a waxing brush (or larger paintbrush will also work), and wipe off the wax immediately with a clean white rag. The wax gives the chalky finish paint more depth and enhances the color, while the brown glaze provides just enough tint to the texture of the pumpkin’s surface. Again, this gives the pumpkin more of a natural look.
Time to add the embellishments!
5. Use a straight pin to poke a small hole into the pumpkin. Move the straight pin around in a circle motion to widen the hole, then use a screwdriver to make the hole the size you need. (Some people will use a drill for this, although I find these pumpkins are usually soft enough to do this by hand.)
6. Take your chosen flower – I used a wooden one I had previously gilded – and make sure it fits into your hole.
The flower is pretty, but it needs something more. How about some faux fall leaves around the flower?
7. While the flower is in place, carefully play with different arrangements of small faux leaves coming out from underneath the flower. Remove the flower, and pin each leaf into place with a straight pin. Make sure to layer the leaves in such a way that you keep the straight pins hidden.
Once you have your arrangement of leaves the way you like, simply pop the gilded gold flower back into its hole at the top. I added a strip of vintage lace seam binding, looped over itself a few times, and then attached it underneath the flower with a straight pin.
The packet of faux leaves I purchased had gold glitter already on them, which was a perfect match for my gold flower. I also used these leaves on some smaller decorative pumpkins, which you can see over at Pet Scribbles here and here.
Head to the store and pick up some faux pumpkins. Spend a couple of hours creating something to match your home decor, and enjoy your work throughout the Fall season!
Happy crafting!
~Laura
