How to Paint Rustic Farmhouse Pumpkins with a Unique Texture

Hello and welcome back to Handmade with me Karen, today I'm excited to share with you my latest project - painting rustic farmhouse pumpkins. These pumpkins are not only adorable but also feature a unique texture that adds to their charm. In this article, we'll dive into the process of creating these beautiful pumpkins using a special trick for achieving a rustic vintagey texture on any cheap pumpkin.

The Trick: Baking Powder and Texture

One of the key elements of this project is baking powder. Yes, you read that right - normal baking powder from your grocery store can be used to create a unique texture in your paint. To start, mix about half of your paint onto a palette and then add plastic wrap over the cup. This will help the paint dry quickly, allowing you to achieve an even coat of color. The trick is to use the same amount of baking powder as paint - this will cause the paint to get bubbly and expand in size, creating a textured effect. If you want to take it up a notch, grab a rough paintbrush and add some extra texture to your pumpkin.

Preparing Your Pumpkin

Before we start painting, let's take a look at our plain old pumpkin. As you can see, this one has stains and uneven surfaces - but that's totally fine because we're going to cover it all up. To get started, mix the paint with baking powder in a cup. You'll want to add about half of your paint onto the palette first, then mix in the baking powder. The mixture should be bubbly and expand in size - this is the texture that will give our pumpkin its unique look.

Applying the Base Coat

Now it's time to apply the base coat to our pumpkin. Using a paintbrush, carefully cover the entire pumpkin with the mixed paint and baking powder mixture. Don't worry if it looks a bit messy at first - we'll get to the good stuff in a minute. Once you've applied the base coat, let it dry for about 15 minutes before moving on to the next step.

Adding Texture and Details

After the base coat has dried, go back over it with your paintbrush as it dries. This will help bring out the texture even more and add some extra details to your pumpkin. Once you're happy with the look, let it dry completely before moving on to the next step. To achieve a beautiful matte textured look, mix up a second coat of paint using baking powder - just like we did for the base coat.

Adding Text and Leaves

Now that our pumpkins have their unique texture, it's time to add some text and leaves. For this, you'll need to print out your design or create one yourself. I used a simple transfer method by coloring on the back of the paper with a pencil, then taping it into place. Using a sharp pencil, go over all of the outlines - when you remove the paper, it will be transferred onto your pumpkin. Next, use a small paintbrush to color in the lines and add some finishing touches.

Painting Flowers and Leaves

For the flowers and leaves, we'll need to mix up a few different colors - dusty pinks and reds for the flowers, and yellowy tans and greens for the stems and leaves. Using basic shapes like crosses, flower shapes, dots, and hearts, you can create beautiful illustrated flower patterns on your pumpkin. Don't worry if it looks a bit messy at first - we'll get to the finishing touches in a minute.

Adding Final Details

Once your flowers and leaves are dry, it's time to add some final details. For this, we'll need to mix up a few more colors - green for the stems and leaves, and yellowy tans for adding details to our flowers. Using small brushstrokes, you can add some extra texture and detail to your design.

The Finished Product

And that's it! With these simple steps, you've transformed a plain old pumpkin into a beautiful, unique piece of home decor. Whether you're decorating for fall or just want to add a personal touch to your home, this project is perfect for anyone looking to get creative and try something new.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi everybody welcome back to handmade with me karen today i'm going to be showing you how to paint these really cute rustic farmhouse pumpkins i've made a lot of pumpkins in my day and honestly i think this is the best one it's so cute i have a special trick for you on how to get this rustic vintagey texture on any cheap pumpkin that you're gonna be working with this is the boring old plain pumpkin that we're going to be painting today so let's get into it so you can see that this is a pumpkin that i decorated previously and tried to clean up but it has stains and uneven surfaces but that's totally fine because we're going to cover it all up i'm actually going to mix my paint in a cup and yes i know that this is basically the same color as the pumpkin but just wait until you see the texture we're adding so the trick to this project is baking powder normal baking powder that you can get at the grocery store put about half of your paint onto a pallet and then you can put plastic wrap over the cup and we're doing this because once we add the baking powder the paint dries really fast and we want to keep the exact same color for the second coat so just mix in the baking powder and you'll want to do about the same amount of baking powder as paint you can see that when they mix the paint gets kind of bubbly and it expands in size so this is the texture that we want basically halfway between dripping off the paintbrush and just being plaster so if you have one you can use a rough paintbrush to give this even more texture don't worry about it looking perfect you want kind of a random organic texture you might also want to grab something plastic for the pumpkin to sit on so that the paint doesn't stick to your scrap paper when it dries so once the entire pumpkin was covered i went over it again with the paintbrush as the paint was drying which really brought out that texture and then you'll want to let it dry which takes about 15 minutes once it's dry bring back the paint from earlier and once again mix it up with the baking powder then just paint on a second coat and let it dry and now after it's dry you can just see this beautiful texture that we've added next we're going to add the text so i printed this from the computer and cut it out yours can say anything you want i just thought oh my gourd was really funny so we're just doing a simple transfer by coloring on the back with a pencil tape the paper into place and then use a sharp pencil to go over all of the outlines and when you remove the paper it's been transferred next use a small paint brush to color in the lines and you don't need to add baking powder to this paint because the texture from the base coat will still be visible through the paint that we add on top while the text is drying i also went ahead and painted the stem i did the first coat with normal acrylic paint just to get the color on there and then i added baking powder to the paint for the second coat to give us that beautiful matte textured look all the way up so here's where we're at and the only thing left to do is to paint on the flowers alright so i mixed up a nice palette of dusty pinks and reds and again we're not adding the baking powder to these painting flowers is easier than you might think it's really just a few basic shapes like a cross a flower shape some dots some hearts you can look up illustrated flower patterns online to get inspired and practice on scrap paper beforehand and then trust me anyone can do this once you have your first layer of flowers painted let that dry for about 20 minutes and put plastic wrap over your palette to save the colors for the next step for the second layer i mixed up two yellowy tan colors and we're going to add details to all of the flowers we already painted again this is really easy it's just a lot of hearts and dots once again let that dry and then mix up a few green colors we're going to add the stems and the leaves and this is where it really starts to come together and fill in the design that we're creating once that's dry we're almost done it's just time to add the finishing touches by adding a third layer onto some of the flowers and adding a little detail to all of the leaves and of course feel free to continue the design all the way around the back if you want to so once all of that is dry we're finished do you remember that boring stained pumpkin that we started with we transformed it into this hand-painted cozy farmhouse piece of home decor just look at all of that texture we added it is so beautiful in person and it was so easy to do i also painted some smaller pumpkins with the same baking powder technique and i mean if you don't want to paint hundreds of flowers totally fine you could always just do the base coat and call it a day so i'd love to know in a comment if you're decorating for fall this year and what you're making don't forget to like this video and subscribe and i'll see you all in the next one\n"