The Teal Pumpkin Project?
Maybe you have seen this pop up on Facebook, or in the news this past week. And you might wonder just what it is. It is an easy (and fun!) way to share with your community this Halloween that you care and support about others.
Click through the link here, or the picture above, to see the full size poster that can be printed out to share.
Some might argue why non-candy? Well…why not? I know my kids love getting a wide variety of things on Halloween. They love toys – especially little pads of paper, crayons, bubbles and so on. We are not talking toothbrushes here 😉 And one can also offer safe candy as well or have a bowl separately of traditional candy.
Being part of a community is acting like one. While I don’t expect anyone in my area to magically have things my youngest son can enjoy, I know I can provide that to him and to anyone else who needs or simply wants it. If I do it, maybe others will – and slowly, the Teal Pumpkin will show up more!
So how did I make my Teal Pumpkin?
I bought a small pumpkin of sorts, most likely a random squash, that was hand size – for 50 cents! A bargain indeed. I washed it and dried it off, then let it rest overnight. After that, I applied around 3 coats of Ceramcoat paint in the light teal shade I found in the craft section. Make sure each coat dries fully. To have less mess, I put the squash on top of a piece of parchment paper. I painted the top half, let that dry, then flipped over and did the other half, and repeated that 3 times in total. For the stem, I used a gold metallic paint from them, and did one thick coat (it is thicker paint), and let dry. I printed a stencil from PiC Monkey for the Jill face and cut it out with an Exacto knife. I held it on the squash while tracing it. Then I used two coats of black paint. The paints are acrylic, non-toxic and wash up off brushes quickly with just water – and I can toss the whole squash into my compost bin later on 🙂 Once squash is dry, put outside in a sheltered area 🙂
Or maybe I just get a little into the whole fall thing….
As for brushes? I have found the MALA from IKEA actually work great for my craft projects! $1.49 a set is a bargain and they actually last, clean up well and last.
Now…as for my goodie bowls? Whatever catches my eyes – and is approved by the two youngest 😉