The Wonderful Words for this Wednesday are ‘Acrylic Pour Pumpkins’
Our Family Tradition
We love the holidays in our house. Each holiday brings different yearly traditions that we simply do not go without. For Halloween, we have several, and one is carving pumpkins, of course.
We all carve our pumpkin uniquely, put candles in them, arrange them on the porch table, and then walk across the street at night to see what they look like all lit up on our porch.
BUT, gone are the days when the boys were very little and I could get them to go along with my ideas and make Pinterest pretty pumpkins for our porch like so:
Can you see my oldest, Gareth, in this pic when he was a wee one?
These days, three of the pumpkins are generally, well, DISGUSTING (due to 2 boy children and a husband who love scary blood and gore), and then there’s mine, which is usually quite pretty.
This year is no exception. The male type at my house made gory, ugly scary type Jack-o’-lanterns:
Acrylic Pour Pumpkins
Since I don’t love cutting the top off of the pumpkin and scooping the ‘guts’ out, I chose to try my hand at ‘acrylic pour’ on my pumpkin this year.
I have never seen this done, although I’m sure there are loads of Youtube tutorials about it, but I just went for it. I happened to have the supplies needed: Acrylic paints in 3-4 colors (I chose blues and one gold – of course), Floetrol (the medium you mix with your colors to make them pourable), and a premixed pourable white for the base coat. I mixed all of my colors with Floetrol and coated my little pumpkins with the premixed white acrylic pour paint.
Here’s a link to the supplies on Amazon:
Premixed White Acrylic Pouring Paint
*I get regular acrylic paints for the colors so I can use them for other projects as well, but you can find premixed in any color.
HOT MESS!
Wow, what a HOT MESS I made! I got acrylic paint EVERYWHERE, my hands, my face, my clothes, the table, and I’ll probably find more tomorrow! For future reference, I advise wearing a hazmat suit and doing it outside or in the garage over a HUGE drop cloth.
My first two little pumpkins were no good. I’m not sure I had the mixture quite thin enough and I didn’t use enough paint as I was just drizzling on the colors with a plastic knife.
THEN, I had a stroke of brilliance. I remembered learning about a kind of pour where you put all the colors in one cup and pour the whole thing over your surface.
Cookin’ With Grease
Now I was cooking with grease! For this method, I placed my mini pumpkin right over the top of a small 8×8 canvas, poured all of my colors into one cup and then poured the entire cup of ALL the blues and gold I had prepared over the pumpkin and canvas. Once I removed the little pumpkin and set it aside to dry, I was left with a canvas full of a LOT of acrylic pouring paint.
Here comes the fun part! I picked up the canvas at the corners and tilted it in all directions to allow the paint to swirl and flow across the whole canvas. THEN, wait for it – I got out the hairdryer and blew that paint around until it pleased me. It didn’t stop there, because next, I got the glitter out. Yep, you heard it right – GLITTER! Everything needs a little bit of glitter, am I right? I sprinkled that glitter in all the right places.
Both the canvas and the little pumpkin turned out pretty great! I may have overworked the acrylic on the canvas a tad bit, but I’m here to tell you, it’s HARD to know when to stop blowing that stuff around. Every time I moved that paint it took on a whole new look!
The Waiting
Now comes the waiting game as it dries. Acrylic pouring is a straight up mystery as you just never know what is going to show up on the canvas when you start your pour. Furthermore, as it dries, it changes and literally takes a life of its own! Take a look at the final product as it is still pretty wet:
Anyone want to help me name the canvas piece?? I’ll take any and all suggestions!
After the excitement and the disaster of this project, I am now spent and ready for a night cap and bed.
So…
Go Forth Friends! Have a go at Acrylic Pour – just PLAY and see what happens!
A Great Place You can Learn More
If you’d like formal instruction in this area, I happen to know an amazing artist who teaches acrylic pouring at the Refind Creations Studio. Her name is Janille Dutton and there are several opportunities, so go to Refindcreations.com and check out classes and workshops and you’ll see the dates and times and prices. I definitely plan to take one of her workshops soon! You can also check our her Instagram @janilles_heartistry
Kimberly Snider, Virtuoso, Signing Off
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