DIY: Glittered Pumpkins

I picked up a few plastic orange pumpkins at a thrift store while visiting my hometown with the idea to glitter them. I was inspired by this Pinterest pin of glittered pears from my Holiday DIY board.

This is a fairly easy project, but I thought I would give you a quick step-by-step on the process:

1. Spray painted the pumpkins all white. I used a cardboard file box to do this with no mess out on my balcony. I don't have the luxury of much space, a garage, workshop or backyard. I'm still debating if I should've left the stems unpainted but I think they are probably best all one color. I painted them all white as a primer before the next step.

2. Spray painted the pumpkins with Metallic Silver spray paint. Each of these paint phases took some time since I would have to spray one area, let it dry, turn them over, spray the other side, let it dry, etc. So I did this over a 24-hour period.

3. Aged the stems. The stems on plastic pumpkins tend to look a little cheap and plastic-y, shocking information, I realize, haha). So I took a dry brush with black paint and just added a very little patina & dimension to them. The orange you can see in this photo is not from the pumpkins but it actually the ceiling light fixture reflecting in the shiny metallic paint.

4. Glitter Time. This is that time where things began to come unhinged. Unhinged -- I'm not sure whether this is happening to me more often than usual or I'm just more sensitive to it than I have been in the past. It seems like every time I do a crafting project lately there is a moment of certain destruction where I am sure I have a colossal catastrophe on my hands. This was it.

First the glue didn't seem to like the painted surface at all. It would begin bubbling after sitting on the surface for a few seconds. I overcame this by painting very small sections and glittering immediately. So the first two pumpkins turned out okay.

I didn't want to do them all exactly the same so I decided to experiment with the variety of silver glitter options from the different kits I have. My third pumpkin that I covered with Metallic Glass Microbeads, did not turn out as pretty as the first two glittered pumpkins. I'm not sure how I feel about this one. Maybe it will just end up being a little more "rustic" than the others. When it's grouped with others I think it's flaws might be less apparent.

That left me with one pumpkin left and a decision about my options. I had large glitter flakes I could go with or the regular glitter I did on the first two. I went with option two: regular glitter. This was my favorite of all the little pumpkins and I didn't want to do something I wouldn't like. I had a guarantee about how it would look with the basic glitter. It turned out perfectly.

5. Dry Time - The easy part, except for one's impatience to see a final product. I let these dry overnight and here is the finished look. I think these will look good mixed in with these pumpkins I did a few weeks ago. A laugh for you, but I don't know what happened to those other pumpkins I did a few weeks ago. I have spent a few minutes looking for them and I can't figure out where I put them. I'm going to get serious about finding them today.

Here's a peek at last year's Fall Mantle. Do you do seasonal mantle decor? If so, when do you usually switch over to fall?

Sending you best wishes for a glorious day!