Happy Fall Pumpkin – Autumn Decor Craft

September 7, 2022 downhomeatdees Comments 0 Comment

I don’t care for the cooler weather of Fall but I love the Fall season because its such an awesome time of year to decorate. What Fall decoration doesn’t have a pumpkin?

The last couple of years I’ve been seeing decorated foam pumpkins. It’s a great idea because they last longer than real pumpkins but they look. . . Well fake.

I decided to make a decorative pumpkin but I wanted it to look real. But how could I do that? The best way I came up with was to “distress” my pumpkin. I got one from Michael’s and got to work.

Here’s how I did it.

Materials –

Foam pumpkin (size your choice)
Acrylic Paint (I used DecoArt Americana White Birch, Territorial Beige and Dark Chocolate)
Paint brush, small plastic container, stirrer & a rag
Measuring Tape
Vinyl design (I used a Cricut Explore, Siser Permanent Black Vinyl & Cricut Design Space to create my design.)
Transfer Tape
Printer (optional)
Scrapper and Scoring Tool
Mod Podge
Autumn floral branches & 1 1/2” Ribbon
Bowdabra (optional – I used to make bow)
Hot Glue Gun & Gorilla Hot Glue Sticks
Cutting Tool, Sandwich Bag and Sand (optional)

Distress Steps –

I mixed a couple of drops of DecoArt Americana White Birch and Apple Barrel Territorial Beige Acrylic Paint in about 1/4 cup of water and mixed well to make a wash. I brushed the wash on the pumpkin then wiped it off with a dry rag. The best way to do this is in sections so the wash doesn’t dry before you can wipe it off.

That didn’t give as much of a distressed look as I hoped for so I did another round using a darker color.

I added DecoArt Americana Dark Chocolate Acrylic Paint to the wash and mixed well. I repeated the process of bushing the wash on the pumpkin then wiped off with a dry rag. Doing a second coat gave my pumpkin a dirty, more realistic look.

Measure the front of the pumpkin to determine the size design you’ll need. I created the Happy Fall design in Cricut Design Space. To make sure the design was the right size, I printed the design out on paper to make sure it would fit.

I used my Cricut Explore to cut “Happy Fall” from Siser Permanent Black Vinyl then took Transfer Tape to place the design where I wanted it.

Placing the design on the pumpkin was a bit tricky because of the creases in the pumpkin. I started adhering the design from the center and worked outwards, using a scrapper tool to smooth and remove bubbles. The scoring tool worked great to press the design into the pumpkin’s creases. Mod Podge over the design to seal.

I added an Autumn floral branch and a bow I made using a Bowdabra. I attached the Autumn floral branch and bow to the stem of the pumpkin using a hot glue gun with Gorilla Hot Glue Sticks.

Overcoming a Challenge –

The next challenge I had was the pumpkin was really light and when the wind blew, which it does often in the Shenandoah Valley, it would blow away. The last thing I wanted to do was chase a pumpkin down the road.

The solution I came up with was to cut a hole in the bottom of the pumpkin, remove the section and put a sandwich bag filled with sand inside. I then glued the cut out section back in the bottom. Now my it doesn’t go anywhere even in high wind gusts.

I’m really excited how my pumpkin turned out. A festive Fall decoration I can leave out the whole Autumn season and use year after year!

Let me know how your pumpkin turn out. I would love to see them.

If you like this pumpkin craft, check out these fun, fall crafts – Pumpkins Sitting Pretty, Three Little Pumpkins and Pumpkin Season is Here!

Pumpkin Season is Here!! — Pumpkin Season is Here!

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Down Home at Dee’s

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