Autumnal Pumpkins

Truth: I am not much of a crafter. Sure, I can imitate and copy some awesome crafty ideas here and there, and I have some creativity of my own sometimes, too, but I am not a natural paint-and-art-supplies type crafter. I do better with the projects where you buy a few materials and put them together. Using brushes is a little beyond me.

But that doesn't mean I don't try! I saw this layout and HAD to try it myself.

Image and tutorial via Wild Ink

Image and tutorial via Wild Ink

How beautiful! I was in! And of course, even though I knew that I should follow those directions since it's not my natural "area" of expertise to begin with, I had to amend a few things to fit me :) First, these were real pumpkins, and I wanted to make them last beyond this year, so I found some "real" looking pumpkins on sale at Michael's, and picked them up with a coupon to make them pretty cheap.

Image via Michael's

Bonus - I just now saw on the Michael's site that these inexpensive foam pumpkins are also carvable! That could be fun to apply the glitter and also make it a jack-o-lantern. The inside is pumpkin-orange just like a "real" one.

Secondly, I don't have a massive side table to display a huge arrangement of pumpkins on, and already have a "mantle" with my lantern display for Fall. So I decided to just make two to start and see how they went, and I could put them on the wine rack in the dining room. I chose a black round pumpkin with silver glitter, and an orange tall pumpkin with copper/gold glitter.

Back to my non-painting skills. Rather than follow the directions, I winged it at the store and picked up spray paint and paint-on-glitter instead of actual dry glitter to be applied on top of glue. I thought I was being more efficient. Ha! Paint-on glitter does not go on as easily, and leaves streaks, FYI. Use the real stuff and don't be lazy like me. It ends up being more work in the end to add more coats.

The results, while not the same glitterific pumpkins that the tutorial would have turned out, still work in my space for what I paid for it. It took a few coats of both, but I like how they look, especially since in total this cost about $12 in supplies for two! The black one can also be repurposed for a Halloween centerpiece with the addition of some black candles and a fake crow or two.

Are you a crafty person? What Fall crafts have you taken on so far this year?