Cassie Stephens: diy pumpkins

Sunday, October 2, 2016

DIY: Vintage-Inspired Halloween

Every year, when fall approaches and the light begins to change, I get this urge to create. Often times that results in a Halloween-inspired dress, needle felted sweater or painting (stay tuned for a big ole blog post with all my fave fall crafts!). This year, I was inspired to create these wannabe vintage Halloween trick or treat buckets!

I got the idea from a shop I happened by one morning. They had these sweet little papier mache treat buckets on display in their window that were more than likely made in a land far, far away. I immediately wanted to duck into the shop and scoop them all up but the nearly $40 price tag kept me away. Then I got the idea: I'd just hit up the thrift store on the way home, pick up some plastic trick or treat containers and make my own.

Here's how, y'all!

I found three of these at my local thrift store in various sizes. I happened to have a couple bags of Celluclay that had been in my school storage closet for almost as long as I've been there.

I had one of the big bags...and as you can see in the video I'v hardly put a dent in the thing. A little goes a long way. What I love about the clay as opposed to papier mache is that it goes on so much faster and doesn't have the texture of elephant snot. So there's that.

Here's the making of the cat. I knew I wanted ears so for him, I simply hot glued some tag board ears to the top.

I had a wee big of a battle with the handle but I made it work.

Surprisingly, the tag board was able to withstand the weight of the clay.

Covering the pumpkins was the first step. It seemed to take forever and was not my fave. I was ready to dive into the face-making part!

So much fun. I drew a lot of inspiration from a "vintage Halloween" google search. That lead me to this incredible artist Johanna Parker who I'm currently a huge fan of!

It was nearly 90 degrees the day I set these guys outside which worked out perfectly as they were dry in no time. This winter, when I experimented with the clay, it took up to a week to dry and did mold a bit on the bottom because I forgot to rotate the clay project. So, not only do I suffer from Cellu-Lung but also Cellu-Mold neither of which my insurance covers. Of course.

The surface was rough but not difficult to paint. I do think kids would struggle as it is def not the easiest surface if you are trying to paint neatly. I rather dug the texture though as it meant I could play around with layers of paint and depth.

I think painting the white pumpkin was my favorite. I started by painting it completely orange then layering the white on top with a dry brush.

After painting the details of the face, I went back and added the line on the pumpkin in orange and a dry brush of light orange and yellow. Once they were dry, I went over each with satin ModPodge to add just a hint of shine.

I really can't decide if these pumpkins are ugly or cute. I'm going with ugly cute. Regardless, they will not be on display in our bedroom as I can't have that creeper staring at my when I'm trying to sleep.