How to Paint a Plastic Pumpkin

 I found these pumpkins taking up a shelf at 

the store.

They were sitting

because of this:

Plastic painted styrofoam pumpkins

that had little knicks in them.

They were cheap enough,

but who would want them this way?

So I filled my cart with a bunch of them,

and a few of these:

Seeing that they were damaged and nobody was buying any,

I showed the cashier their flaws,
and

(my husband is cringing)

I asked if they'd consider a discount.

>Gulp<

But hey, nobody else wanted them, right?

She asked the manager and the manager nonchalantly said,

"Sure, you can give her half off for those."

So I brought home my bruised babies,

and began making the paint:

I stirred in a good quantity of Plaster Paris

into the paint and stirred.

 Then I began coating the thick substance on all the pumpkins...

 

 and anything else that was lying around.

 The two major differences between this paint

and Annie Sloane's Chalk Paint

is this paint is gritty.

Annie's is smooth.

Also, Annie's dries in minutes.

These pumpkins took hours to dry.

I left them over night,

and then I did another coat

just to make sure the bruised parts were thoroughly covered and sealed.

It did a good job

and although I wouldn't drop kick one of these pumpkins across the room,

their bruises are healed,

and they are much more durable than their former selves.

To paint the pumpkins,

I painted some orange with lighter tones on the raised ribs;

for the "whitish" looking pumpkins,

I used really watered-down

Leaf Green, Burnt Umber, and Bright Yellow Apple Barrel paint

and roughly sponged each of these colors all over the pumpkin

til I got the look I liked.

After that dried, I highlighted the raised rib sections

with watered down white paint.

For the pumpkins that I did transfers on,

I found the images that I wanted from the Graphics Fairy,

 and colored charcoal pencil on the back of the image

after I had roughly cut around it.

I practiced on a sheet of paper...

 so I would get a rough idea of how I would place the wording.

Then I carefully laid the image onto the completely painted

and dried pumpkin,

 lightly taped it down,

and traced around the image.

 I then used a dipping calligraphy pen

and some permanent brown acrylic calligraphy ink

to fill in the design

and write in the words.

Using a permanent paint marker would be an even easier option.

The painted completed pumpkins were then given

a brushing of clear wax,

with a touch of rugger brown wax for some extra shading.

A few hours later, they were buffed and

ready to sit on a shelf.

 For the other pumpkins,

I did some free-hand designs,

and I did this one...

using a stencil.

I then filled in with some detail and shading.

(You can see the shine the wax adds by comparing the previous two pictures).

 This was a fun project

and definitely worth the effort.

If you happen upon some "damaged" pumpkins,
get a few and give it a try.

Even my daughter stole one of my pumpkins away

after it had been chalk-painted.

I discovered this fact when I opened the gift she had wrapped up for me:

 But this one isn't being offered in the giveaway.

It's priceless.

So without further ado,

the winner of the giveaway is:

 

 Congratulations, Anne!!

You'll have to let me know which one you will choose

when you email me your address.

Wait a second.

Your comments were so sweet and overwhelming,

I decided to give one more away,

since I got an extra scarf done.

So I ran the numbers through random.org one more time and got:

 Congratulations to you, Anita!!

You said you liked the first pumpkin the most.

I think that was referring to the "Autumn Geese."

Let me know when you email me your address if this is right.

My email is PumpkinPiePainter1(at)gmail(dot)com.

Thank you to all who participated.

I wish I could send all of you a painted pumpkin!

(I am linking this up to Debbie Doos Primp-your-Pumpkin,

event thought these pumpkins were from last year).

Linking up to:

wearethatfamily:Works for Me Wednesday
beyondthepicketfence: under-100-linky-party
nominimalisthere.blogspot.com
firefliesandjellybeans
House of Hepworths
From my Front Porch to Yours
Somewhat Simple
funkyjunkinteriors
Not just a Housewife
A Bowl full of lemons