Tag Archives: pumpkin

This past spring, I discovered stretched burlap canvases.  They’re just like a regular canvas that you paint on except that they’re made of burlap.  They are great for all kinds of crafts.   

Now that it’s fall, I thought I’d try my hand at some fall burlap art:

If you can draw or trace the shape of a pumpkin, you can do this easy fall craft.  It doesn’t require a huge amount of art skills…I promise!  

The trick to giving the pumpkin some depth is to use 3-4 colors of orange and 2 colors of brown.  It makes a big difference!

Supplies:

• burlap canvas
• embellishments (faux floral, raffia, nail heads)
• glue gun
• craft paint and paint brushes

Directions:

• using a pencil, draw free-hand or copy an outline of a pumpkin on to the canvas
• fill in the outline with various colors of orange paint – use sweeping broad strokes to outline the “ridges” of the pumpkin
• use a little brown paint to help define the ridges of the pumpkin — blend your paints together using the same brush for all the colors so the lines don’t come out too harsh  (don’t over think this…just use broad brush strokes in a half-moon motion and add paint as needed — feel free to layer and just paint over what you don’t like)
• add a stem with brown paint.  I used 2 different browns to give the stem a little more depth
• hot glue on the faux floral and raffia 
• add nail heads to the sides of the canvas measuring an equal distance in between 

The beauty of this kind of painting is that you really can’t go wrong.  If the pumpkin is too orange, add some brown or reddish orange.  If it’s too flat looking add more curved strokes of paint with some brown mixed with a darker orange.  Experiment!  The more you mix it up the better it looks!

Hint:  I used about 4 different colors of orange ranging from light orange, pumpkin orange and reddish orange.  I also used 2 different colors of brown.  Use the same brush for each color — let the colors mix and blend.

My first try looked a little flat to me when I was finished:

I wanted it to have more depth, so even after the embellishments were on I decided to add some brown to give it more definition.  

Better, don’t you think?

Don’t be afraid to give it a try.  It really is fun!

I’ll be back tonight at 8 p.m. Central with another project and the Best of DIY link party.  

Hope to see you then!