Chalk Paint and Gold Leaf Pumpkins – DIY

This year I have been seeing a lot of really wonderful looking pumpkins painted with chalk paint so I thought I would give it a try. I went to my local craft store and bought some of the craft pumpkins and some bottles of chalk paint in the colors I thought I would like them. I wanted my pumpkins to be a little funky and glitzy so I also purchase gold leafing and adhesive. I bought as many as I could in white so that the coverage would be easy.

Even though they say you do not have to, I lightly sanded the pumpkins and wiped them clean before painting. I then painted my desired colors with the chalk paint. When dry I sealed with a coat of brush on varnish. You would not have to do this, I just wanted to make it easier for me if I messed up and wanted to wipe something off quickly.

Now for the fun! You will want to follow the manufacturers directions for applying the adhesive and gold leafing. Some adhesives are thinner, so if yours is thin you will want to be careful not to have runs. Basically you apply the adhesive to the area you want the leafing. It will be cloudy when first applied, when it drys clear apply leafing. Brush with a soft brush to remove the excess leafing. Once you get the hang of it, it is fun to work with and I love the results. For the large and small green pumpkins I added circles using a DecoArt Spongits. 1 1/4″ for the large pumpkin and 1″ for the small pumpkin. Work an area at a time.

I wanted to do a chevron on the middle pumpkin, but was a little unsure how to do it since the sections were not equal in size. I let go of that fact and winged it by using a grey chalk pencil and going up and down each section starting at the top. Lucky for me I had and equal number of sections. If I wouldn’t have I would divided a larger section. I then continued drawing lines down the pumpkin following the one above it. You can see I left a little larger section between each chevron.

Again I worked an area at a time. I used an old flat paint brush to add the adhesive. If an area does not take the leafing you can go back and reapply the adhesive and leafing. I like the imperfect look of mine.

On the orange pumpkin I added leafing to the entire pumpkin. Now they are all done and looking pretty bright. Apply a coat of varnish to protect them. If you are happy with the look you are done. I wanted to tone mine down a little so I added a coat of antiquing.

I antiqued mine using DecoArt Antiquing Medium and mixed it with Raw Sienna paint following manufacturer instructions. You could use any antiquing of choice. I applied the antiquing and then wiped off the excess with a paper towel.