Skye's Pumpkin Decorating Challenge Results

Pumpkin decorating without the mess of carving seems to be a popular approach for Halloween this year; Erin and I hadn't discussed our challenge plans but we clearly think along the same lines!
It's easy to see why this is a popular alternative to pumpkin carving as it's much easier and holds so many possibilities.

I wanted to try and create a more subtle Halloween theme with my pumpkins - think The Night Circus - and I also wanted to keep the budget to a minimum.

Luckily, I found these spray paints in Poundland, and they're great! I picked up silver, gold and copper but my local shop had black and white too. I'd definitely recommend them as spray paint is usually expensive, and these have held up brilliantly.
I fully sprayed a few of the pumpkins, and then also tried spraying just the top of one so that the paint dropped down the sides of the pumpkin for a splattered effect. I also tried a two tone combination of gold spray paint on the bottom half of one pumpkin, and then copper covering and dripping down the top. This didn't work quite as well as I'd hoped, but I think it has a Snow White poisoned apple vibe about it!

Once the spray paint had dried, I used black and white paints and a black sharpie marker to decorate the pumpkins. I went with bold polka dots, subtle dots on the dripping pumpkin, and then black and white stripes on the smaller pumpkins.

I love the look of these pumpkins clustered together, and even better when draped with my Ping Pong Ball Pumpkin Lights; they definitely make the flat feel ready for Halloween :)

We'd love to hear from you if you give this DIY a go - use the hash tag #eightandsixteen to share your photos with us!

Skye

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Erin's Pumpkin Decorating Challenge Results

On Monday we introduced our Halloween inspired pumpkin decorating challenge and today I get to share my results! Right from the start I knew I wanted to try and use items that I already had in my craft stash to decorate the pumpkins, unintentionally making an extra challenge for myself. In the end I managed to do this using paints, felt, jewellery wire, Mod Podge and even nail art gems!

My pumpkin design was initially inspired by various Pins featuring bats and other animals attached onto the surface of plain coloured pumpkins to create a 3D effect. As someone who is terrible at pumpkin carving I loved the idea of being able to create something 3D without having to cut into the pumpkin at all.

Next came the idea to not just leave the pumpkins one colour but to create a backdrop for the bats to fly against. I had decided I didn't want to completely cover up the natural orange of the pumpkin and so settled on a sunset and contrasting silhouette background which allowed me to incorporate it.

Overall I'm really pleased with how the pumpkins turned out and think they would be perfect for indoor display on windowsills, by fireplaces or as table centrepieces at your Halloween party, however I wouldn't recommend placing them outside in bad weather! Here's a little bit more about how I achieved the final designs...



I started off by mapping out the landscape design onto the surface of the pumpkin using a trusty FriXion pen. I then used chalkboard paint to black out these areas, choosing this type of paint as I thought it would adhere best to the surface. It also gave a nice matte finish once dried, adding to the final effect of the design.



Next I used acrylic paints mixed with Mod Podge (to help them stick to the surface) and sponge brushes to create a sunset effect on the top half of the pumpkin. As I mentioned above I wanted to try and include the bright natural orange tones of the pumpkin's skin so a sunset seemed like the perfect way to do this.



For an extra final touch I used Mod Podge to stick on a few tiny nail art gems to represent stars in the evening sky. Then finally I added on the felt bats that had originally inspired the whole idea. After cutting out the bats I used jewellery wire to attach them onto the pumpkin. To make sure they were secure I used a wooden skewer to first pierce holes into the pumpkin's surface then threaded the wires through these and the outer layer of the pumpkin.

For my second pumpkin the process was exactly the same except this time I opted for a cityscape style silhouette, which with the bats I think feels very Gotham!



We'd love to hear from you if you try out this or any of our other DIY projects - use the hashtag #eightandsixteen to share your photos with us!

Erin

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Pumpkin Decorating Challenge Week!

What would an October full of Halloween inspired projects be without pumpkins? This week we'll be introducing our new 'challenge week' format and will each be sharing our own pumpkin decorating ideas. Look out for Erin's finished pumpkins on Wednesday followed by Skye's on Friday!

We'd love to hear how you're planning to decorate yours this year - use the hash tag #eightandsixteen to share your photos with us!

Skye & Erin

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