Pottery Barn Copycat Metallic Pumpkins

If you saw my last post about "acorn bling" you'll know how much I love glamming things up with shiny silver paint.  And adding unexpected punch to the traditional reds, yellows and oranges of fall.

I got inspired to make these pumpkins while browsing one of my favorite sites called Copycat Crafts, looking for some unique fall decorating ideas.

They featured a blogger,  Nice Girl Notes, who didn't feel like paying $24 a pumpkin that Pottery Barn was asking. I didn't either.

Pottery Barn calalog pumpkins

I liked how her version turned out so much I decided to try my own spin on it too.
Here's how I did it:

-Went to Hobby Lobby and bought a few small hard plastic orange pumpkins, like these:

-Bought Rust-oleum Bright Coat Metallic spraypaint (look for the bright shiny silvery-gold caps). This way, they will look more like shiny mercury and not a grayish silver like regular silver spray paint.

-Laid the pumpkins out on newsprint and got ready to paint!

Sprayed one light coat of paint on all pumpkins. Allowed to dry, sprayed another coat and allowed that coat to dry. (About 30 min).

-After the pumpkins were completely dry, I lightly scuffed them with sandpaper (oh, how I love distressing things) to show a hint of the orange underneath.
And...I was done!

shiny pumpkins sitting pretty on my cabinet

Linked up with: Life In The Motherhood Harvest Party

Acorn Bling!

It's my favorite time of year...Autumn is here!  I couldn't wait to start decorating this year. I have been bursting at the seams with creativity!

Don't think you have time, energy, or money to decorate? This craft took me around 30 minutes, cost under $4 and I let my kids get in on the fun by helping me collect the acorns...and we were lucky enough to get to them before all the squirrels did!

I love all of the oranges, reds, yellows and browns of fall, but wanted to add a little metallic sparkle to it all. So, here's all you need to glamorize some acorns:

--a handful of acorns, silver or whatever color you choose of spray paint, a cardboard box or newspaper. I used Rust-Oleum Bright Coat Metallic spray paint-(look for a very shiny silvery-gold cap, not the dull gray ones).
--or for a kid-friendly version: craft acrylic paint, paintbrush, newspaper, small cups for putting paint into.

-Now I learned the hard way that acorns need to be prepped before using inside the home-little larvae started to come out into a vase I had them in. Yuck! But there is an easy way to kill them...

-Bake the acorns on 350 degrees for 15 min. I wrapped them in foil on a baking sheet for a cleaner prep.
-After they have cooled, I put a handful of acorns in a small cardboard box.

-Then, I lightly sprayed them with shiny chrome spray paint, rolled them around in the box, sprayed them again. Allowed to dry in the box.

-After they were dry, I wanted to expose some of the brown, so I lightly sanded them with sandpaper.

If you want to do this craft with kids, I would suggest using the acrylic craft paint and a paint brush instead of spray paint.

Or, they could dip just the ends of the acorns into a cup of paint, then allow to dry on newspaper. That simple! A variety of bright colors would be fun.

To finish and add a little elegance, I put the acorns in a small glass vase and wrapped a sheer bow around it. Such a pretty transformation of the humble acorn!

I would love to hear from you! Let me know if you try this idea how it turns out.

Well, now it's time to hunt down some acorns...and be careful around those squirrels!