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A Halloween DIY Craft

We recently spent an afternoon creating some mini painted pumpkins. These little pumpkins are a fun craft that leads to decorations you can use again and again!

What you need to create painted pumpkins

• Pumpkins-we chose little plastic covered ones from eBay but Hobbycraft has papermache or ceramic options. Half of our plastic pumpkins were white and half orange
• Sharpies or other similar pens
• Paint and paint brushes. We used acrylic.
• PVA and a glue brush (you need a lot of glue for glitter!)
• Glitter-both fine and chunky worked in our designs
• Some design ideas and a rainy afternoon!

If you want to make your own but are stuck for ideas be sure to check out our prompt ideas here!

Now just let your imagination run wild. Perhaps you want a range of coordinating decorations or perhaps homages to your favourite spooky (or non spooky) films. Now is your chance to create exactly what you want!

Our designs included Cinderella’s Carriage, Tim Burton films, pixies and abstract art.

We chose to create mini designs but you can also buy larger blank designs with pre cut faces perfect for adding a candle to.

Paper Mache Painted Pumpkins

We also recently painted some paper mache pumpkins. These were very different to the plastic pumpkins, paper being more absorbent whilst with the plastic the paint can somewhat sit on the surface.

For these we used acrylic paint and thin sharpie pens once the paint was well and truly dry. Avoid getting them too wet.

Ceramic Painted Pumpkins

Our third foray into painted pumpkins lead us to ceramic pumpkins with poured paint. We used poster paint, which can be watered down lightly if needed. The paint mostly wanted to just follow the grooves. But with some brush work we could get to the designs we wanted. I would definitely recommend metallic paint as that gave a lovely effect!

Painting real pumpkins

Painted pumpkins can also include real pumpkins too. This is a great, safe way to get involved in yearly pumpkin decoration!

In fact fresh pumpkins that aren’t cut or carved will last longer! Just be aware of the weather with where you site your painted pumpkin.