It’s pumpkin time! That means pumpkin seeds, pumpkin lattes, and pumpkin decorations. My wife’s alma mater, Bay Path College, held the 3rd Annual Carpe Diem Dash to benefit their scholarship fund. A good friend of hers is the president of the Alumni Association, so we chipped in to help out (manning the water stations, not running). I was also able to help with the decorations by painting pumpkins.
We went to the awesome farm that supplied the veggies for our wedding, Gooseberry Farms (http://www.farmfresh.org/food/farm.php?farm=1997), and they gave us an amazing deal on tons of pumpkins, gourds, hay, and a crazy-looking hubbard squash (grey food- who knew?). I took some of the biggest ones and used Sharpies and acrylic craft paint to decorate them with “Carpe Diem” (the college’s motto- long before “Dead Poet’s Society“) and this year’s theme: “Be Bold”.
The Sharpies and craft paint weren’t necessarily the best choices. The Sharpies colored well but have such narrow strokes that I couldn’t do much other than write with them. The black craft paint was great- it went on smoothly, stayed where I put it, and covered really well. The pink was another story. It went on really light (not opaque like the black) but when I tried to do a second coat, even after letting it dry, it wiped off the first coat in some places. I had to go over it a few times, and even then I didn’t get the really “bold” color I was hoping for. I think there are other things that would have worked better to decorate them. Paint markers, maybe?
I still think they made for great decorations, especially the way our friend arranged them. I like that crazy hubbard squash the best. But the real best part… they came home with us and are now decorating our front steps.
Hey, thanks for the tip on using plastic eggs rather than strofaom balls, I’ll salve some next year for my monster craft and do it with the library craft kids! I think i know what went wrong with your pumpkin painting. First you need to wash the pumpkin with dish soap to remove the waxy coating they naturally have. then you can draw on it with the marker and paint with acrylic paint. Tempera paint will not adhere well. Have fun!
Brilliant! That’s one of my favorite parts about blogging- exchanging tips and giving each other new ideas. Thanks!
There is an annual tree, plant and flower festival not too far from us and one year the theme was squashes, they had a wonderful display of lots of different varieties in the entrance hall, it really was beautiful. They are fantastic.
Squashes and gourds are so cool. There’s such an amazing variety and really wild looking ones, aren’t there?
Oh yes for sure!