Paper Paint and Pine: american decor chalky finish paint

If you are a follower of Pinterest then I am sure you have seen a variation of these wooden pumpkins floating around! I know every time I click on Pinterest I see at least a couple Wooden Pumpkin Pins. One day my mom said she really wanted to make a set of Wooden Pumpkins and I thought it was so funny because for at least a month I had been thinking about it since I keep seeing them on Pinterest. I would say within minutes of that conversation there was a Home Depot run. We did 5 pumpkins for our sets but sometimes you will see just 3 or 4 and even just 2 of them. The best part about a project like this is that each person is going to end up with a bit different look and will probably display them a little differently. I have seen them with stripes, polka dots, chevron stripes, monograms, etc. So many ways to do them.

We both are very happy with how easy this project was and how cute they are! I can't wait to make something else using wood blocks! So fun!

You will need:

2x4 cut in sizes of your choice. We made our pumpkins 4,6,9,12 and 15 inches tall. The wood came from Home Depot and they cut it there.

3/4 inch Dowel Rod cut down to size for your stems. The stems used were just random so I don't have exact measurements of what are shown here. Just give it a good estimate

Orange Paint, we used American Decor Chalky Finish paint from Decoart. It's by far my favorite chalk paint.

Brown Paint for your stems-we used a color my mom had from Valspar.

Silk Leaves

Floral Wire or some flexible wire to make the stems

Sand Paper/Power Sander

Minwax or a wax of your choice (This step is optional but makes a beautiful finish to your pumpkins)

Chalkboard for your sign. We used little chalkboard place cards from Michael's.

Chalk and/or chalk pen

E6000 Glue

You will want to sand your board pieces really smooth so that you have a nice finish. A power sander is always nice for this kind of job but if you don't have one just use a sanding block or a piece of medium grit sandpaper to get it all smooth.

Use your orange paint to cover all sides of your boards. I did 2 coats of the American Decor Chalky Finish paint and it worked really well. It was a little bright at first but with all the distressing I did and then waxing the blocks it ended up a nice rich orange so don't panic if yours looks a little bright.

Once your paint has dried on all sides really well you can distress the boards. I used my power sander with a fine grit sandpaper and went over the whole block lightly and then went back over the edges to actually take some paint off. After the sanding it really lightened up the orange but no worries.

I wanted mine to have more dimension so I used a Stain Pain to darken the blocks. I dabbed the stain pain on a piece of white t shirt and then lightly rubbed it into the block. If you use a pen like I did you won't want to put the pen directly to the wood because you end up looking like you just have lines. You just keep adding the stain where you want it and blending it in with the t shirt fabric. Once I stained mine I very lightly went back over it with the sander.

Now on to the wax. I used Minwax and applied it to all the blocks with a wax brush. I personally love a wax brush but some people like to just rub the wax on with a piece of cotton fabric. Either way works. Once the wax dried up a bit I went over it and buffed it out with a white t shirt and really brought up the shine. Then I used a 400 grit piece of sandpaper and went over all the blocks on all sides to make a really smooth finish and then rebuffed them with the t shirt fabric. They feel like silk now. That is my favorite about finishing with wax because it makes the piece so smooth.

As you can see in the first photo above, once the wax is done and you've sanded all the pieces again you end up really getting some dimension and it brings up some dark spots. You may not like this look so if you don't just skip over it.

I skipped photos of doing the stems and curling the wire for the top of the pumpkins so I will just tell you what I did...You will paint your stem pieces a dark brown and you can distress and wax these as well but you wouldn't need to use your stain on these since they are already dark brown. You will then decide which is the top of your pumpkin and use E6000 glue to apply the stems. Let these dry really well or the stems will slide all over the place.

For the little curly wire we used 2 colors of floral wire. We wrapped 2 pieces together to get a heavier look and then twisted them around each stem and curled them around a pencil and then stretched them out to our liking. Then I glued a few green leaves to the top of each pumpkin. Some got 2 leaves and others got one--just do them to your liking.

We got little chalkboard clothespin place cards from Michael's and then removed the clothes pin from the back and painted the back so it looked finished using the same technique as the pumpkin blocks. I distressed the back of my sign quite a bit so it looks really "beat up" but that was the look I was going for. I then went out in my yard to gather a few sticks and sanded them a little so they were nice and smooth. I then used the E6000 glue to attach the sticks to the back of the chalkboard to make a little standing sign. Tied a piece of wraphia ribbon around the stick and it was done.

Have you ever heard of Tacky Wax? If not it's something you should own if you like to decorate. We collect Department 56 Snow Villages and this stuff always saves us when we set them up and the little pieces won't stand up etc. but I have been amazed at how often I use it when decorating around the house. It will hold candles in place like nobody's business! I rolled a little ball of it and placed it on the bottom of each of my pumpkins to hold them in place sine they were going to be sitting on a tray and might be wobbly. Worked like a charm!

I put my finished pumpkins in a basket/tray combination and then filled the base with dried green peas. I then stuck my sign in and added a tiny dab of Tacky Wax to the back of the sign and leaned it against the pumpkin to make it look like it's standing on it's own. Worked out perfectly.

This was a very simple project but plan on a day to get it all done since the paint and glue has to dry thoroughly before moving on to the next step. I promise it will be worth it though!

I am sure this sounds funny but I think the sign is probably my favorite part of this whole project. I seasoned the chalkboard by rubbing chalk all over it and then lightly wiping it away so it didn't remain so "new" looking. I then did the writing with a Chalk Pen--best thing ever. I finished it up by running a piece of chalk all around the edges to make it "pop" a little more.

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My Mom's Pumpkin Patch
Here are a few photos of my mom's pumpkin display too. She did hers a bit differently because she painted a wood plaque to use as her base. I love it!

She used brown paper shreds as her base filler just to add a little dimension to the display.

Another little chalkboard sign done the same way as above. So cute!

Her base is a wood plaque from the craft store and she used 2 colors of paint to achieve this look. She first painted it dark brown and then added a light brown on top and then did lots of sanding to get most the light brown off and bring out the deeper brown. She then waxed it and it feels like glass it is so smooth. It turned out so well!

I love how they are the same but slightly different. At first glance I think they look exactly the same but then when you really look there are little things here and there that we chose to do a bit differently and I love that.

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Such a fun Fall Project! Something that would really make a great gift as well.

Happy Fall!

A cute little pumpkin patch!

If you end up making these I'd love to hear from you. I think you will just love them when they are all finished!

Don't you just love fall!? I know I do! It is my very favorite season...pumpkins, the leaves changing colors, cool mornings, breezy days, that crisp air that promises another beautiful fall day. I Love It!

I always get an assortment of gourds, pumpkins and marigolds for my front porch the minute I feel fall in the air. Last year I added the flowers and pumpkins to a little step ladder my mom gave me that was all beat up and old as the hills. I loved it and it got a lot of compliments when people stopped by so I knew I'd be using it again this year.

When I was pulling the little ladder out I thought it looked like it was crying out for a little color. I just happened to have some American Decor Chalky Finish Paint from Deco Art that I was dying to try. I figured this ladder was the perfect piece for chalk paint. This was such a quick project and the paint is the bomb diggity!

If you haven't used Chalk Paint then I highly recommend this American Decor Chalky Finish Paint! It goes on so smoothly and you get a great feel when it dries. Use some wax with it and you have a gorgeous finished piece.

For my ladder I wanted the finished look to be "worn" out looking. I knew I was going to be using at least 2 colors but as it turns out I ended up doing 3 different colors and I love how the finished product looks.

For the first coat I used a light coat of the Vintage color. I didn't do it real heavy but I got the wood mostly covered with this light aqua color.

As you can see there is some of the wood still showing through so if you want this kind of look don't do a heavy coat of paint because you'll be adding more.

For my next coat of paint I mixed equal parts of Vintage and Treasure. As you can see it's what is in the little container above the paint. I just dry brushed this on over the ladder but very lightly so it didn't add too much color. I just wanted the color to deepen a bit.

For the last step I used just the Treasure color. This is a darker/brighter color by itself so I was very careful about how much I used.

I really didn't want much of this brighter color to be on the ladder so what I did was just dab my brush in the paint and then blot it on a paper towel to take most of the paint back off and then went over the ladder in areas to add a pop of more intense color. I liked that it absorbed better in some areas and not as well in others. I joked when I was first doing it that I looked like I had a tie dyed ladder but once it dried it turned out perfectly! I added a couple coats of wax to the ladder and lightly sanded it for a super smooth finish and I was done! This literally took maybe an hour.