Fun Ideas for Painting Pumpkins

Paint pumpkins solid colors for various characters (figure 7). Try these solid color pumpkin ideas on for size:

Purple - Dracula, monsters, bats
Green - witches, goblins, aliens
White - ghosts, puppies
Black - spiders, bats
Silver - robots, aliens
Brown - bears, owls, fox

Use a low-temp glue gun to add additional embellishments or accents to your painted pumpkin. Use yarn, raffia, or corn hucks for hair, and Styrofoam balls for eyes. Also try accents such as artificial leaves, chenille stems, pom pons, beads, sequins, scarves, and hats to create a one-of-a-kind pumpkin. You can also embed small objects such as sequins, rhinestones, or buttons using DecoArt's Foam Paint (figure 8).

Give a sparkling sheen to your finished pumpkin by sprinkling Glamour Dust on it while paint is wet (figure 9).

Create a non-traditional looking pumpkin by painting wacky shapes, stripes, and polka dots. Use a pouncer brush to make perfect polka dots (figure 10). Dip the pouncer in paint, dab off excess, and pounce onto surface.

Combine pumpkin carving and painting techniques for a truly original pumpkin design.

Pumpkins don't always grow perfectly. If a pumpkin will sit better on its side, see if you can use the stem as part of the face. (As a witch's nose, for example.) Study the shape. You may come up with a funny monster, puppy dog, alien, or bug.

Easily personalize your pumpkin with your name or giant initial for a fun touch. Transfer a computer letter font using transfer paper and pencil onto your pumpkin (figure 11).

Use Craft Foam to add easy, 3-dimensional effects to your pumpkins like wings, ears, hands, crowns, etc (figure 12).

Add decorative painting techniques and strokework to create elegant and stylish scrollwork pumpkins (figure 13).