Perfect for a literary pumpkin patch, a special activity with the kids or to indulge your own crafty needs, these painted pumpkins re all the cute with none of the pumpkin guts or carving.
Supplies:
- Hollow craft pumpkin (black and white are perfect, if only orange is available you can paint them the base color!)
- Acrylic craft paint – black, purple, pink, blue, white, gold
- Paintbrush
- Newspaper, parchment paper, etc. to cover your workspace
- For galaxy pumpkin, if adding light:
- hammer and nail
- battery-powered tealight or flashlight
- exacto knife
- For unicorn pumpkin:
- faux flowers
- glitter cardstock
- low-temperature hot glue gun
- glitter
- mod-podge or spray adhesive glue
Instructions:
For galaxy pumpkin:
- If it’s not black, start by painting your pumpkin black. Using a wadded-up paper towel like a paintbrush, “sponge” on pink, purple, and blues to create the galaxies on your pumpkin. A little goes a long way. If you feel like you may have put too much color on your pumpkin, sponge on some black over it.
- Decide what constellation you will draw on your pumpkin. Use gold paint to be the constellation “points” – or main stars that make the shape, and white paint to connect them.
- Add additional stars around the pumpkin. For an extra touch, use your paintbrush to flick gold and white splatters of paint on all sides.
- Once dry, cut out a circle on the bottom of the pumpkin large enough to fit your flashlight or tea light into.
- Add additional holes using your hammer and nail around the pumpkin to let the light shine through.
For unicorn pumpkin:
- If it isn’t already, start by painting your pumpkin white. Use a paper towel like a sponge to add hues of pink and purple in the cheek area.
- Use a paintbrush to paint on eyes and eyelashes.
- Near the stem for “hair”, apply spray adhesive glue or Mod Podge to secure glitter to the pumpkin. Let dry thoroughly before adding th flowers in step 5.
- Cut a unicorn horn out of glittered cardstock. To get the horn symmetrical, start with a sketch of a long triangle, then go back and add the “bumps” of the horn. Attach the horn to the stem with hot glue or create a slit in the stem and slide the horn into the slit.
- Attach the faux flowers with hot glue around the “crown” of the pumpkin/unicorn.
