Today I have another Halloween project to share with you – I call it Rusty Pumpkins. Now, the pumpkins don't have actual rust on them, but they kind of look like they do, don't they?
I had wanted to do another Halloween project , but with the holiday fast approaching I knew it had to be something much less complicated than my other project. I had pumpkins on my mind, and when I saw a video with Prima's Rust Paste, the idea for "Rusty Pumpkins" was born.
The pumpkins I designed are made out of chipboard with paper bag stems.
The smallest pumpkin is approximately 4" in diameter and 4" tall.
The tall pumpkin is approximately 4" in diameter and 6" tall.
The wide pumpkin is approximately 6" in diameter and 5" tall.
I started out by drafting three different templates so there would be three different sizes and shapes of pumpkins. I used mostly lightweight chipboard, with just a little medium weight chipboard used for the tops and bases. Each pumpkin has eight vertical sections and five horizontal sections – the heights and widths of these sections change for each pumpkin to give them their unique shapes and sizes.
The cut out chipboard for each pumpkin resembles the "orange-peel" map. The sections are connected with Tyvek joining strips, and then octagons of chipboard are used for the top and the bottom.
The stems are made from torn strips of brown paper lunch sacks.
Each stem has a pipe cleaner in the center which makes it possible to create the curlicue at the top.
The paper strips are twisted and glued around the pipe cleaner to create the stem shape.
When the stems were completely dry I glued them to the pumpkins.
To finish the pumpkins, I started with a base coat of black gesso.
I then used more black gesso and mixed in Prima Art Stones – both the regular size and the mini size.
I used this mixture to add texture to the pumpkins in various areas.
After the gesso and texture were completely dry I used the Prima Rust Paste set of Brown, Red and Yellow to paint the pumpkins and create the rust effect.
I started with mostly brown and red, then followed that by using red and yellow, and then going back and forth between all the colors until I got a look that I was happy with.
The paste has texture in it which also enhances the rust effect.
This was a pretty quick project – the only thing that took time was allowing things to dry – the stems, the gesso and the texture additions.
I've posted a Materials and Cutting Guide and a Templates sheet to Dropbox. They are free downloads and are available by following this link:
LINK - Rusty Pumpkins Materials and Cutting Guide and Templates
I've also uploaded a video showing the construction and painting of the pumpkins to YouTube. A link to that video is at the end of this post.
Thanks for visiting and Happy Halloween!
April
YouTube video showing both the finished pumpkins and the construction/painting process:
1 comment:
Oh my, these pumpkins are so incredibly rusty, you can almost feel the crumble of the caustic metal. Fantastic texturing and coloring. i particularly love the stems. No matter how "easy" you say it was to make them, that natural curl and bunching is sooo fun. I am enJoying the creepiness of halloween with these. Thanks.
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