DIY Purple Buffalo Check Pumpkin

There are so many ways to welcome Fall including decorating with pumpkins! From the teeny-tiniest pumpkins - to whopping huge sizes that you can place in or out, and everywhere around your home. They can add a touch of fall to any area in so many ways. And the best part - you can decorate, paint or use pumpkins anyway to want! 

Buffalo check plaids are so popular and trendy these days and I recently saw Patti @ Pandora's Box post an amazing tutorial on "How to Paint a Buffalo Checked Pumpkin" It was a beautifully finished piece and she made it seem so easy! 

I was impressed and inspired to make my own - although I had my doubts if I could actually pull it off. I'm not good at painting - and honestly, don't like to paint! But I wanted to make one using different hues of purple!  How cool would that be? After all, purple is my favorite color and just perfect for fall - and any other time of the year, for that matter!  Besides, I've never seen a purple plaid pumpkin! And I loved Patti's easy to follow tutorial so much that I shared it with the ladies in my craft class, too!

Materials needed:

• Pumpkin
• Chalk paint for pumpkin body (white or very light)
• Craft acrylic paints - (2) one lighter than the other
• Brushes - (2) - 1 large and one smaller one with a straight edge across.
• Spray sealant
• Brown paper for stem
• Tacky glue

I started with a dollar store pumpkin and covered it in a Lilac chalk paint by FolkArt. The other two craft acrylic paint colors that I used were Plum Kiss (lighter) by Apple Barrel and  Amethyst (darker) by Ceramcoat. I already had the paint and pumpkin in my stash, and I decided I would use a cheap pumpkin like a dollar store one first instead of maybe messing up a more expensive one! 

Next, I counted the number of sections to decide how to evenly paint stripes around the pumpkin. Once I figured that out, I got started with the lighter plum paint. I thought I would have trouble with painting a straight line but it wasn't too bad. Just try to keep the stripes the same width and evenly spaced.

You can see some stripes are wider than others with a few streaks. Oh, well .  .  

 I think this looks pretty darn good, regardless!

Once the vertical lines were painted and dry, I painted on the first horizontal line beginning in the middle area since there is a crease line where the pumpkin came together.  So, begin on the center of one of the vertical lines, and try to match the width somewhat, and continue around to match up where the horizontal line was started.

Then, paint on additional horizontal lines, top and bottom, spacing about the same widths and let dry.

Next, paint in where the horizontal and vertical lines cross with the darker amethyst shade, following the lines. 

Be sure to paint every section where the lines cross for a finished check look. Spray on a sealant if desired.

Hot dang! This looks great!

To add a distinctive pumpkin stem, cut a flap from a cardboard box and separate the paper from the corrugated portion. Completely wet the paper with warm water.  

Roll up and twist the paper, shaping into a stem with an opening on the bottom. Seal sides with tacky glue and .  .  .

let dry. I pushed the stem against a board to help keep its' shape while drying.

Once dry, glue on over the short stem. I left the stem the same color, but it can be painted.

Decorate as desired!

Here are pics of my craft session:

The ladies loved this!

 A couple of the finished pumpkins:

I'm really loving this!

I hope you are inspired to try this wonderful painting technique, too! 

Thanks, Patti!

I'm sharing my DIY Purple Buffalo Check Pumpkin tutorial at our Hello Fall Link Party where I'm co-hosting beginning on September 17 thru October 18!

Please stop by and join the party by linking up your favorite posts on all things Fall - new or old! And be sure to visit all of the other co-hosts to see their creative ideas and inspirations, too!

Thanks for stopping by

and take a little time to enjoy,

Happy Fall Crafting!