the pumpkin patch

First off, how is it fall already?! WHAT THE HECK?!  This year is just flying and I can't seem to keep on top of it!  Anyway...I saw this thing on Pinterest ages ago where someone had painted a plastic pumpkin from a garage sale.  The result was awesome and naturally, I have no idea where the link to said project is.  Not long after my Pinspiration, I was walking through the Dollar Tree where they were just putting out fall items.  On the top of the shelf was an ugly, nearly fluorescent orange pumpkin that claimed to be carvable.  I could care less about the carving factor, snagged, one, took it home, and decided to make it look like the rustic gourd I had seen on Pinterest.  The result surprised me and I'm wanting to make more!

Here's what you'll need:

plastic or papier-mâché pumpkin

craft paint

.5 inch to 1-inch flat paintbrush

painter's tape

1. I wanted the stem to be a different color, so I taped it off with painter's tape.  

2. That orange is MIGHTY bright, so I started with a base coat of beige paint and let it dry a bit.

3. Add contrasting colors.  Craft paint lends itself really well to blending, which I forgot. I wanted more of an impressionistic, splotchy look at the end.  I kept painting with various shades of green, brown, and yellow to give some high and lowlights.

4. The green was too green, so I went back to the beige after the dark coat had thoroughly dried.  I added it lightly to let some of the green peek out.  

5. After settling on the beige, I removed the painter's tape and browned up the stem. 

6.  With the dark stem, I added a few splotchy brown lowlights to the body of the pumpkin for a bit of texture.

This was a serious process of "by guess and by gosh" where I tried what worked for me.  There was a lot of blending, repainting, and some eventually shrugging and just going with it.  If you take this too seriously, it'll be a lot less fun.  

So, one more time...

...before...

...and after!