Painting Pumpkins for Fall Harvest

These are my “Country Bumpkin Pumpkins.” Rather than carving pumpkins for Halloween, it is the time of Painting Pumpkins for Fall Harvest.

Now that the season is changing and all of trees are turning to their beautiful fall colors, it’s time to bring in the fall festivities. Notably, Halloween is a fun celebration with all of the costumes, trick-or-treating, parties, fresh-baked goodies, and pumpkin carving. Painting Pumpkins for Fall Harvest is what I like to do to bring in the season.

Not everyone celebrates Halloween like they did in past years. Along with all the fun activities that go with it, there is very dark side to it. Instead, I like to participate in a way that stays on the brighter side of it. As many others, it represents fall harvest instead.

Also, the nice things about decorating with the simple resources you already have in your home, is you save money and you don’t have to store your seasonal decorations all year around.

Materials 

• pumpkins
• scissors
• twine or yarn for hair
• Acrylic paints
• brushes small and medium
• ribbon

Simple Instructions For Hair

1. Use a book or something flat to wrap the twine around several times to get desired thickness. *The size of the book will determine the length of the hair.
2. Slide the bundled twine from the book. Then, tie it in two places at the center of the bundle. Leave enough room to slide the pumpkin stem through the center.
3. After placing the twine on the pumpkin, cut each end. Additionally, you can add bows before cutting if you choose to use them.

Painting Pumpkins for Fall Harvest ~Tips 

In general, I use acrylic paints and draw the faces freehand. If you prefer to copy a design, you can you can use graphite paper to transfer the design to the pumpkin. Techniques for transferring designs are found on  Creating Chalkboard Signs blog post. After you have finished painting the pumpkins, you can spray a coat of flat polyurethane over it to protect the paint.

If you want to find some fun cartoon faces for your project, click here.

If you want to find some simple animal faces for your project, click here.

Your Pumpkins can also be painted with spray paint, wrapped in tissue paper, stenciled… you can add glitter, metallic paint or gold leaf, or you may want to just write a short message on them. It is a great project for the whole family.

Here is a video from Jennifer Atwood of The Magic Brush to give you some other ideas.