butterfly pumpkins

I've been painting pumpkins during the fall for a very long time- so long that I kinda consider myself a pioneer of pumpkin painting! Back in 2010 my pretty painted pumpkins tutorial went viral and since then it has become a yearly tradition of mine to come up with a variety of unique pumpkin tutorials with the hope to inspire others to push the boundaries with creativity and a pumpkin! I've got a few fun ideas coming your way in the weeks ahead and today I am kicking off the season with some whimsical butterfly pumpkins. I hope this inspires you to get creative with your fall decorating!

When I paint pumpkins, I typically begin with a good thick coat of acrylic paint.

Next, I created butterfly wings from some heavy cardstock

I painted a simple body and then I glued the wings to the pumpkin.

Looking for more pumpkin decorating inspiration? 

You can read all about what I call "the art of decorating a pumpkin" HERE

OR 

Check out all of my different pumpkin decorating tutorials below!

lace pumpkins   finger painted pumpkins   beach pumpkins   

patchwork pumpkins      owl pumpkins

frida pumpkins   geometric pumpkins   pretty painted pumpkins

aztec pumpkins   marbleized pumpkins

painted pattern pumpkins    sketchbook pumpkins    messy pumpkins   black and white pumpkins 

folk pattern pumpkins

woodland creature pumpkins    glow in the dark pumpkins

floral pumpkins

shibori inspired pumpkins

Fabric pumpkins are nothing new but I thought it would be fun to put a simple twist on them! I love shibori (ancient Japanese dyeing technique with indigo dye) and I thought it would be fun to create a big ol' batch of pumpkins out of handmade shibori inspired fabric!

I used some scraps of white fabric, a few packages of Tulip One-Step Dye Kits in blue and got busy creating my dyed fabric.

I used a few different techniques and a variety of different clips, rubber bands, folding and wooden shapes to create my fabric.

I followed the directions for the one step dye and let my fabric sit for about 6 hours then washed and dried it!

The result was some really fun pieces of blue fabric that have that tie dye/Shibori vibe I was going for!

Next, I got busy creating my pumpkins!

Creating fabric pumpkins is SUPER fast and easy.

Start by cutting out circles from the fabric. I cut out a variety of different sizes of circles. 

Then stitch all the way around.

Next, fill with poly-fil and gather the thread.

Stitch it closed.

Using twigs from our yard, I hot glued the stem into the middle of the pumpkin. 

Last, I tied raffia and craft paper wire around the base of the stem.

The result is a batch of beautiful shibori inspired pumpkins that will be used in our fall decor this year!

SaveSave

folk pattern pumpkins

Looking for more pumpkin decorating inspiration? 

You can read all about what I call "the art of decorating a pumpkin" HERE

OR 

check out all of the different pumpkin decorating tutorials below!

lace pumpkins   finger painted pumpkins   beach pumpkins   

patchwork pumpkins      owl pumpkins

frida pumpkins   geometric pumpkins   pretty painted pumpkins

aztec pumpkins   marbleized pumpkins

painted pattern pumpkins    sketchbook pumpkins    messy pumpkins   black and white pumpkins 

woodland creature pumpkins    glow in the dark pumpkins

floral pumpkins

aztec pattern painted pumpkins

I've been painting pumpkins during the fall for a very long time- so long that I kinda consider myself a pioneer of pumpkin painting! Back in 2010 my pretty painted pumpkins tutorial went viral and since then it has become a yearly tradition of mine to come up with a variety of unique pumpkin tutorials with the hope to inspire others to push the boundaries with paint and a pumpkin! 

Every year I like to try and come up with some kind of pattern to paint on my pumpkins. I think pattern pumpkins have become my favorite to create and display on our porch! This year I thought it would be fun to make some aztec pattern pumpkins. 

Typically when I create most of my painted pumpkins I don't make much of a plan- I simply jump right in but these designs (even though they are pretty simple) I sketched out and planned.

When it comes to painting pumpkins, I always start with a base coat. I used black for the large pumpkin and once it was dry, I sketched out my design with a white paint pen. The rest was basically filling in that design with color and small embellishments.

Even though these pumpkins are a little more simple than most of my others, I LOVE the way they turned out! They are colorful, bold and a really fun fall accent.

Looking for more pumpkin decorating inspiration? 

You can read all about what I call "the art of decorating a pumpkin" HERE

OR 

check out all of the different pumpkin decorating tutorials below!

lace pumpkins   finger painted pumpkins   beach pumpkins  

glow in the dark pumpkins

 patchwork pumpkins   owl pumpkins

frida pumpkins   geometric pumpkins   pretty painted pumpkins

painted pattern pumpkins    sketchbook pumpkins    messy pumpkins   black and white pumpkins 

woodland creatures pumpkins