DIY Canvas Painted Pumpkins

by Kristy Lingebach

3 Hours

Easy

These DIY canvas pumpkins are a completely no-sew option for a “fabric” pumpkin.
I’m jumping on the fabric pumpkin bandwagon here, but I absolutely love the trend. I found the canvas fabric in the Joann’s discount pile, and have had it laying out in the closet for months.

halloween decorations canvas painted pumpkins, crafts, seasonal holiday decor

What you’ll need:

Canvas Fabric

Paint

Embroidery thread

Hot Glue Gun

Scissors

Salt

Flour

First cut your fabric to the size you want for your pumpkin. I cut 3 different pieces, largest: 25in x 20in, medium: 18in x 13in, small: 16in x 9in.

Next, paint your “canvas”. On the bright yellow fabric, the paint looked like a candy corn. On the tan fabric I used 2 shades of orange to get almost a watercolor effect. Let your fabric dry.

Once It’s dried, fold your fabric in half, painted side in. Then accordion fold the end and wrap it up with embroidery thread so it’s secure. I then hot-glued the end around the embroidery thread to ensure that it stays. Do this to both ends.

Invert the fabric, so the wrapped ends are on the inside and the paint is on the outside.

Stuff your pumpkin. I used scraps of Old t Shirts to stuff mine (That’s what I had laying around from previous projects) but you could use pillow stuffing or whatever you want.

Hot glue the seam on the side shut. Squish the pumpkin to shape it.

Wrap the pumpkin with the embroidery thread, hot glue the string to the middle of the top, where it will be covered by the stem. Pull the string tightly while wrapping to create the indents like a pumpkin has.

Draw your face on the pumpkin and paint in with black paint. Don’t forget to paint the string where it overlays on the black part.

Now, for the stem. I initially tried to break a piece of a branch and use that. I was not a fan of how it looked. Instead I made a homemade clay (dough) and baked it until it was hard. Painted and glued on the “clay” stems.

For the clay, combine 2 cups of flour and 1 cup of salt. Mix in 1 cup of HOT water and 1 tablespoon of oil. Once it’s cool enough, knead it for 5 minutes – There you have it, clay.

Shape the stems, and look at them on the pumpkin to make sure they are right before baking them.

Bake at 300 degrees for 40-60 minutes, depending how thick your stems are. You want it to be completely solid.

Once cool, paint to your liking. Glue stems onto the pumpkins, covering where you glued on the embroidery thread.

For the full photo tutorial and more about the painted canvas pumpkins, check out the post below. I hope you enjoyed them!

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2 of 10 comments

SK on Elderberry on Oct 06, 2014
How very fun. Here I go painting pumpkins. Thanks for sharing. sk

1 Reply
Sammokka on Mar 15, 2015
Really cute; thanks so much!!!!

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