Monogrammed Pumpkins

 

I LOVE Halloween. Seriously.  I don't know what it is about the holiday but I adore the pumpkins, cauldrons, witches, spiders and everything ghoulish about it!  We usually throw a huge Halloween party every year and I spend weeks decorating our home.  This year, with a new baby, I decided to use a sprinkling of decorations around the house and try a simply chic approach.  I searched Pinterest during one of baby's feedings and found a terrific inspiration.  http://radiobutlers.blogspot.com/2011/10/monogram-pumpkin-tutorial.html



 

This tutorial was fantastic but time consuming.  I wanted to make this craft simple and chic.  I visited my local Michael's Arts and Crafts store with my handy 40% coupon and found cream foam pumpkins.  This would eliminate the need for spray painting since I wanted a cream pumpkin with black lettering. 

 

My sister and her husband recently purchased a new home. So I decided to try out my plan for a monogrammed pumpkin as a housewarming gift for them.  If it failed miserably then they would never have to know! 

 

Materials: craft pumpkin, black craft paint, pencil, scissors, small paintbrush, tape, a computer with word program, and a printer.

 

1.  Wipe the pumpkin off and find a spot that is fairly flat and blemish free.

 

2.  On the computer, print out the letter of choice in a font and size that will fit your pumpkin.  This may take a bit of trial and error. 

 

3.  Next, cut out the giant letter and tape it directly to your pumpkin.  Try to use just a few pieces of tape because we will be tracing around the letter.

 

4.  Trace around the letter with a pencil.  Remove the letter and tape pieces. 

 

5.  Use a paintbrush and craft paint (in the the color of your choice) to fill in the letter.  You may need two coats.

 

6.  I loved the simplicity of this look but decided to add some pizazz!  I free handed a spider based on

another Pinterest design.  http://www.oopseydaisyblog.com/2011/09/black-and-white-pumpkins-2 -tutorials.html.  To do this, I just used the rounded end of my paintbrush and created the spider using a series of dots.

 

 

The original pumpkin created as a gift for my sister.

I loved the way the first one turned out, that I made one for my mom too!