Fall Decorating with Ombre Pumpkins
Happy November!
I sincerely cannot believe I'm saying that already this year. It feels like just yesterday we were sprawled out on the rocky beaches of Lake Champlain complaining that it was already almost halfway through Summer 2016! Oh well, fall is an exciting time too, although a wee bit chilly-er.
But now we get fall decorating! And here is a quick DIY idea for fall decorating this season with my usual go-to medium: spray paint (duh). I actually made these for a photoshoot for one of my cool clients, so I thought I would share the How To because they would also look awesome as Thanksgiving table accents!
There are a million and one tutorials out there about how to decorate pumpkins with all kinds of paints, thumbtacks, glitter, sparkles, washi tape, etc. I wanted to experiment with a few new kinds of Rust-o-leum paints I've picked up recently.
- Rust-oleum CHALKED Spray Paint (yes, this really is a thing, and it is every bit as awesome as you chalk paint/Annie Sloan fans can imagine) in Linen White
- Rust-oleum METALLIC in Reflective Gold, my fave.
- Rust-oleum CHALKBOARD in classic blackboard (turns almost any surface into a useable chalkboard)
Using just painter's tape and these three paints, each with different textures and consistencies, I simply played around with them until I realized I was making Ombre pumpkins! It's all in the layering :) .
For the bigger pumpkin:
SPRAY
This is your base layer and the color that will show through any layering you do here after. I did my entire pumpkin from hide to stalk but feel free to experiment and paint your stalk a contrasting color from your base layer.
**NOTE: Be sure to let EACH LAYER of paint THOROUGHLY DRY before removing any tape. I was very hasty and impatient and that resulted in a lot of orange pumpkin hide peeking through my paint jobs :(
STICK
Use painter's tape to create a mask of areas that will stay gold and peek through your next layer.
RESPRAY
This is your second layer that will create the contrast from your base layer's color everywhere except where you have placed the masking tape.
PEEL
Again, make sure your paint is thoroughly dry before peeling off the masking tape!!
ADMIRE!
Yay! This was the part where I decided to help some of my hasty peeling issues with spraying another spot of gold straight town on top of the stalk, creating an ombre gradient effect from the top down.
For the smaller pumpkins, I played around with the paint using different techniques:
SPOT
Continuing the ombre look, I turned these bad boys over and simply spotted them on their bottoms with a shot of contrasting color. The spray paint stream was large enough to carry the color up the sides a bit to make a cool effect from the bottom up.
DRIP
On top of the spotted little guys, I then turned them back over again and sprayed with more color directly down on the stalks creating waterfalls of the paint that then dripped down the pumpkins' crevasses creating these super cool drips!
And there you have it: Ombre pumpkins and golden leaves! I even threw in a few acorns, which were just too cute.
How will you be decorating for Fall 2016?
