Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Pumpkins

My fingers were itching for some glue gun time and I was super inspired by a lot of blogs this week!

First off, Robyn Story announced a holiday decorating contest. She really didn’t give any details, but my mind started racing anyway! All I knew was that use of Annie Sloan Chalk paint is strongly encouraged and recycled items would be favored. At stake is a $250 gift certificate! She said she’d announce details later… but I couldn’t wait!

It’s still about 95 degrees here, but my loving husband happily obliged when I asked him to go into the attic. I promised that just the look of fall around the house would lower the temperature. He’s a lot smarter than that, but he’s a great sport and played along.

Once I got my hand on my old pumpkin stash, out came the Annie Sloan paint. The first pumpkin I painted was this one:

Originally, it was a small, styrofoam white pumpkin. I painted it with 3 coats of Arles with a foam brush. When it was dry, I went over it lightly with dark wax. And when that was dry, I bedazzled it with self-adhering rhinestones. At first, the rhinestones didn’t stick so well. But over the past few days, fewer and fewer are falling off. It must just take awhile for the glue to really adhere.

Here’s my next pumpkin:

This one was even easier. It’s just a large white pumpkin and I applied Annie Sloan dark wax. I then used a glue gun to bedazzle it.

And this one, by far, was the easiest:

Again, I just did a light coat of Annie Sloan dark wax over a white styrofoam pumpkin. The sparkle is added from a scrapbook sticker I picked up at JoAnns.

To complete my tablescape, I also decorated 2 more pumpkins. Here they are:

This one was the most time-intensive. I propped the pumpkin on a water glass as a stand and then I applied tacky glue in small sections. I then poured and spread these little glass stones over the glue. When an area dried, I rotated the pumpkin and applied more. Pretty messy, but I think, overall, it was worth it.

This was a pretty easy one, too. I found removable wall border tape at JoAnns. The glittery, bronze color was a good match for my decor. The original border was a little wide, so I just cut it in half. I cut strips the length of the pumpkin. I had to fight my perfectionist impulses on this one… the border didn’t lay down as flat as I would have liked, but I’m okay with it. After the pumpkin was covered, I embellished it with a scrapbook sticker and rhinestone tape for the stem.

Once I was done with all the decorating, I mounted them on coordinating candlesticks and put them front and center on my dining room table. I carried out the theme with 6 small pumpkin candle holders, 3 at each end of my main arrangement.

After I got it all together, I couldn’t stop. Check back later this week and I’ll post more photos from my kitchen table.

Oh, the Robyn Story contest? Seems like they were talking about Christmas decorating! I jumped the gun too soon! Oh well! I’m just thankful for the inspiration!

Here’s one last look… enjoy!