DIY Sugar Skull Pumpkins

Winter is coming!

Hahaha, but not before fall.  As you can probably assume from the blog name, I LOVE Halloween!  Who doesn't?  My birthday is in late October, so I've always had Halloween-themed birthday parties growing up.

I love to carve a little pumpkin, roast the seeds and listen to the Audio Book version of World World Z,  which you can buy here. It features the voices of Henry Rollins, Max Brooks, Mark Hamill, and Alan Alda and is amaaaaaaazing.

I decided to paint some pumpkins last year as sugar skulls, to go with my Dia de Los Muertos' themed birthday party because I really dig the bright colors as opposed to the more traditional black and orange Halloween colors.

Last year's pumpkins.

  

Partay!!!!!!!

This year I decided to paint the Sugar Skull Pumpkins again with a few tweaks.  So I put Dead Man's Bones, a Halloween concept album by Ryan Gosling of all people, and got down to bidness.

As if Ryan Gosling is not crazy hot and crazy talented already.

Here we go, step by step, day by day, a fresh start ov--.....wait, I'm back on topic!

Uh...and pumpkins!  You'll need pumpkins too!

First Step - gently brush away any dirt or debris from your pumpkin and spray paint black, in a well ventilated area using a scrap piece of cardboard.  Spray about two coats, wait for each coat to dry.  I like to use the spray paint handle that you can pick up at most hardware stores.

Second Step - after the spray paint has dried, use white acrylic paint to paint on the skull.  Make sure you rest the pumpkin on a paper towel as the black spray paint can rub off on unprotected surfaces. I usually paint a large circle with a smaller rectangle just below to make the skull shape. Let dry.

Step Three - Use black acrylic paint to paint in circles for the eye sockets, a triangle for the nose, and markings for the jaw.  Let dry.

Step Four - Paint in details with your various colors of acrylic paints.  I love to use red, pink, orange, yellow and a turquoise.  Make it as colorful as you can!  You may have to let dry in between coats so as not to mix the colors.  Once dry, display anywhere you like but be gentle, as the spray paint coat can nick.  Make sure to protect any fabric or light-colored surfaces just in case.  Enjoy!

'Til next time!

Marg.