We’re going to play a game today!
Are you ready?
On your mark – get set!
Find the faux pumpkins in this picture.
How about this one?
And this one?
Did you get it right?
How about now?
Ok, I wasn’t fair here – there wasn’t even a real pumpkin in the pile!
I had so much fun this past weekend. In fact I had a double fun! I tried my hand at making chalk paint and used it to paint faux pumpkins. I was happy with the way they both turned out.
How to Make Faux Pumpkins
You will need:
Pumpkins
Paint – in a variety of colors
Plaster of Paris
Primer (if you chose to prime your pumpkins)
Paint brushes or sponge brushes
Sea sponge
I started out by gathering together some faux orange pumpkins that I had in my “stash”, along with a few I had recently found at a thrift store.
I primed some of them and left some of them as they were. I wanted to see the difference in the finished product.
Once I had the pumpkins primed, I mixed together my chalk paint using one part water and one part Plaster of Paris to three parts paint. As I was only using paint on a small project and not a large piece, my mix amounted to about two tablespoons of water and Plaster of Paris and 6 tablespoons of paint.
I combined the water and Plaster of Paris together first. Once the mixture was well formulated, I added the paint and stirred until it was nice and smooth.
I do have to admit, I had to add a bit of water to the mixture as I worked. Other than that the paint worked beautifully.
Once the paint was ready I applied it to my pumpkins. As I was trying to create the white pumpkin look, a creamy white paint was perfect. I used one of the small Valspar Color Samples from Lowe’s and the best part of all – I found it on the clearance rack for just 50 cents!
Here are some of my pumpkins with their first coat of paint. It took two coats on each of them – It didn’t matter if they were primed or not.
The pumpkins I had primed had a gray undertone to the painted pumpkins which I liked.
Once I had given them a second coat of chalk paint, I began sponge painting additional colors onto the pumpkins with a sea sponge. I layered several colors until I reached the look I wanted. Some had more green tones, some more brown and some more orange. I highlighted the outer portions of the pumpkins to add dimension.
I was having such a good time painting I forgot to take pictures along the way, but you can see some of the results in the pictures below.
To make the faux pumpkins appear more “real” I added stems from real pumpkins.
Don’t tell anyone but I went to a couple of stores that sold pumpkins and rummaged through the piles of pumpkins to find stems that had fallen off and gathered them up to use on mine! I hope no one was watching me – I can’t imagine what they would have been wondering!
I simply removed the plastic stems from my faux pumpkins and glued the real ones in their place.
I loved the way they turned out.
Now I can’t wait to work them into my vignettes!
If you enjoyed this Faux pumpkin tutorial I invite you to pin it to your Fall Pinterest Board. You can see all of the wonderful things I am pinning HERE!
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