Haunting Halloween Decorations

Halloween is coming! EEK!! I love Halloween time.  I love when fall/autumn pumpkins turn into glowing jack-o-lanterns.  Recently I hosted a Halloween decorations/ crafting party with a few of my closest girlfriends.  I had so much fun.  The items we made were things I either found online or decided to do myself. 

The main attraction was the beadboard pumpkins.  I love beadboard, I would put it everywhere in my house if I could.  I searched and searched for a tutorial on these pretty pumpkins, but sadly never came across one.  Mainly I wanted to know the sizes of the pumpkins and the tools used to cut the beadboard.  With no such luck I tested my crafting ability by enlarging a few different shapes of pumpkins online  (**note: I don’t know how to upload the pumpkin patterns I used, but if you would like to see them, I would be happy to email them to anyone interested- amandamdillard@gmail.com**)

So here goes the beadboard pumpkin tutorial…

Supplies:

·      Beadboard (I actually bought hard board paneling $19.27 at Home Depot two panels cut into two)

·      Acrylic Paint (Wal-mart: Pumpkin Orange, Vintage White and Burnt Umber)

·      Paint brushed (craft brushes and I also bought dot brushes)

·      Burlap for the leaf

·      Rafia –sp?

·      Scissors

·      Rotozip

·      Table sander

·      Safety glasses

·      Hot glue gun

Step one:

Trace your pumpkins on the finished size of the beadboard. 

Step two:

Cut your pumpkins out using a Rotozip- totally awesome I borrowed it from my neighbor! Don’t forget to wear your safety glasses! If your bits become dull, slide the circular piece around the bit down to use a new spot on the bit.  If the bits break off (and they will) replace them! And don’t worry if your link are jagged, a sander will fix that in a jiffy!

Step three:

Sand your pumpkins edges. 

Step three:

Paint your pumpkins.  I chose to do my pumpkins a little more rustic and old looking so I used orange and a cream-ish white color.  Let dry completely. 

Step four:

To give your pumpkins an antique or old look to them, I watered down the burnt umber paint and randomly brushed the paint on with light, fast strokes.  I them let the paint dry for just a few minutes. 

Step five:

I used a damp paper towel to wipe off unwanted burn umber until I got the look I wanted.  Let dry.  (if desired I stamped one of my pumpkins with polk-a-dots after the burnt umber dried.  Look so cute!!) Simple or designed, these pumpkins are so cute. 

Step six:

Embellish away! I tied raffia-sp? (too lazy to look the proper spelling up) to the top and hot glued a burlap leaf to the top.  You can find and leaf pattern to trace.  Or free hand!- I’m not that gifted. 

Final product:

Ok the next craft we did was the Candy Wreaths with the Furry Spooky Spiders hanging in the center. 

Totally fin right? L.O.V.E. it!

I actually got the idea from a few blogs so I will link them below so you can see their tutorials…. Gotta give credit where credit is due!

I did however make a few changes…

·      I bought the wreaths from Dollar Tree (you know the natural wood looking ones) can’t beat that price! And I spray-painted them black.  Wal-mart sells flat black spray paint for under a buck! Can you say….AWESOME! I also just read on another blog that Home Depot does too J !

Click here 

Furry Spooky Spiders!

Click here

Lastly I did not make these at the craft night, but I started making them just a few minutes ago… they already look so cute!

Click here

Enjoy!

Love,

Amanda