If you have seen any of the cute terracotta pumpkins that are in the shops this season, you will have noticed the price of some of them. Not all that cheap! But they are very adorable, so I wanted to have a go at making some dupes as a budget DIY project.
I picked up some ceramic pumpkins from B&M – reduced because they were missing their stalks! Plus a couple of plastic ones from Morrisons and this is how they turned out…
Not bad, hey? Ok, let’s get started!
What You Will Need
A set of artificial pumpkins – you can pick up cheap ones for around £3.50 – £6
Light terracotta paint or mix your own using tan and white paint colours
Baking powder
Flour
A paint brush or sponge
This technique will work whether they are plastic or ceramic, it tends to work on any surface – even real pumpkins probably, although I haven’t tried that!
How To
First you need to mix up your paint if creating your own custom colour. I bought some acrylic paint from Hobbycraft at £2 per bottle. I chose Chestnut and White in a matt finish.
To resemble terracotta, the pumpkins need a matt, slightly textured finish. So into the blended paints, I added a spoonful of baking powder.
If you haven’t tried this technique before, the baking powder reacts with the water in the paint and the mixture starts to bubble and thicken, creating a nice slightly rough texture for the surface of your pumpkins. You need to use baking powder and not bicarbonate of soda.
I painted the stalks as well as the inner part of the eyes and mouth on the pumpkin face, so it would look more terracotta-like.
Once dry, I went in with another coat of paint mixed with baking powder – this time I made the consistency a little thicker, using extra baking powder.
Before the pumpkins were fully dry, but almost, I sprinkled on some ordinary flour from the kitchen cupboard. The idea is to give the pumpkins that characteristic chalky finish of a light coloured terracotta. I found it best to sprinkle on and then gently wipe some of it off with a brush or sponge.
This was such a simple, fun and cheap DIY and I think they turned out great – look how my once plastic pumpkin resembles my actual terracotta vase!
Let me know what you think and if you plan to make some of these faux terracotta pumpkins too 🙂
