Painting Pumpkins for your Halloween Porch

I saw this picture this year and felt so inspired by it!  I really considered getting faux pumpkins and painting them and then figuring out how to create this installation.  There are approximately 31 pumpkins on that porch... even if I only did one vertical installation - it would have been at minimum 6 pumpkins.  And for reasons I can't fathom - faux pumpkins are EXPENSIVE - at Michaels a 13" Orange Craft Pumpkin by Ashland is $29.99 - same size at Walmart $14.98.  So I settled on buying a few real pumpkins and painting them.  I really had fun with it!  

1. I never knew these smaller sized pumpkins are called pumpkin pie pumpkins.  Adorable.

2. I kept our color palette limited to black, white, dark pink, light pink, orange and tan.  Like the inspiration picture.

 

 3. I found the paint dries pretty quickly and that two coats looks great.

4. I found the perfect disposable paint trays - at Dollar Tree!  They're Styrofoam rectangles and really perfect for painting projects with kids!

5. While at Dollar Tree - I also got plastic cups that are now designated as paint water cups.

6. And I believe you can get foam paint brushes there.  DT FTW!

They look SO cute on the porch!!

A special thanks to my mom Debbie and my niece Gia for painting pumpkins with me!

Pumpkin Sewing Craft

I love crafts that are cute and that use things I have around the house.  This is both!  Gia - my niece who is in kindergarten - made this craft!  

For this project you'll need:

• the plastic lid from sour cream or something similar
• orange yarn
• a green pipe cleaner
• a plastic sewing needle
• a hole punch
• a small stick from outside

I prepared this craft before she arrived.  I cut the center of the plastic lid out, then from the inside, I punched holes all the way around.

I also threaded the yarn through the needle for her.  

I found that I had trouble explaining the concept of bring the needle up from the bottom and back down through the top.  She kept flipping the lid and not understanding which was the top/bottom - so luckily I realized it was a time to say - you can sew this however you want!  It turned out great!  

To curl the pipe cleaner, just wrap it around a pencil.  Then I used the pipe cleaner to secure the stick.