Pumpkin Glow...

Hi everyone!!! Today is a very special day on taboriginal, as a Design Team member for the Kraaft Shaak. I am posting a new

Spark Some Kreativity Saturday @The Kraaft Shaak

Our Theme for the remained of this year is "Holiday".  Perfect isn't it??!!

I had this idea for a cute candle holder in the shape of a pumpkin for my courtyard table. And, as most of you know,  I love to use household items to recycle/repurpose as often as I can. So when I saw this empty brown bad sitting on my counter, it said, "Come on, make me!!" So I obliged!!

I took that bag, stuffed it with pink foam peanuts for shape, then paper mached over it, added a stem, made ripples from recycled drive-through napkins, painted it, embellished with lots of goodies from the Kraaft Shaak and now it sits on my little table. I love how it turned out!!

Here are some pics as I progressed:

Here is the bag, stuffed with those pink peanuts:

I used thin-downed Liquitex matte gel to apply the torn magazine strips instead of making the traditional paste of flour and water. That stuff takes forever to dry and the Liquitex cuts the dry time in at least half.

I put about 3 layers of the strips on, then recycled packing paper by applying it to the last layer for a smoother finish.

Then it was hung up to dry.

When it was dry, I took scissors and cut the bottom smooth, and trimmed it so it sat on the table the way I wanted it to.

All pumpkins have ridges, not just Ruffles, so mine needed them too. I had a huge stack of those brown napkins your get at fast food places and drive-thrus. SAVE THEM!!! They are wonderful in mixed media, plus you are recycling those recycled paper napkins!!! What could be better??!!

So I rolled them up and applied around the pumpkin, using Finnabair's Art Basic 3D Matte Gel. This medium is so thick, it holds the ripples in place nicely:

Then I used more napkins to apply another coat that would smooth out the ripples and make it look more like a real pumpkin:

Then it had to dry again to get ready for painting. I used Artist's Loft Orange Acrylic Paint over the whole pumpkin and the same brand in brown for the stem.

Once it was all dry, then the fun began!!! I was sooooo eager to make it glitter and gleam, shine and sparkle!!

And what better way than to use Finnabair's Art Ingredients Art Sugar!! I mixed Charcoal with some Finnabair's Art Basic Soft Gloss Gel and painted in the valleys of the ripples.

The high parts of the ripples - the mountains- needed prettying up too, so I mixed Art Ingredients Copper Micro Beads with the same matte gel and added some Lindsy's Stamp Magicals Hag's Wart Orange and Canna Lily Burnt Orange for that extra sparkle those yummy micas give. I painted this mix on to those areas. I wish you could see the way those copper micro beads glisten in that paste!!!

To complete this little pumpkin , I added some vine leaves and good old fashioned twine then popped a battery tea light into it. I love those things!!! They are so versatile.

Then I had to get a few night shots:

Here is a video on the whole process, over on YouTube on my taboriginal channel - if you want to make one:

I hoped you enjoyed this Spark of Kreativity for the Kraaft Shaak Saturday Design Team post. You don't need alot of purchased items to make cute kraafting projects when all you have to do is look about your home, think outside the box,  then use it.

The following is a list of supplies used, the highlighted ones can be found at the Kraaft Shaak. Although the LSG Magicals I used are not available in the Kraaft Shaak, others are:

paper bag
pink packing peanuts enclosed in a plastic bag for your sanity
magazine/newspaper/packing paper torn into strips for paper mache, twisted and rolled for a stem
brown paper recycled napkins
scissors for trimming the finished pumpkin
Finnabair Art Basics:
     3D Matte Gel
     Soft Gloss Gel
Finnabair Art Ingredients:
     Charcoal Art Sugar
     Copper Micro Beads
Liquitex Matte Gel
Artist's Loft Acrylic Paint:
     Orange
     Brown
Lindy's Stamp Gang Magicals
     Hag's Wart Orange
     Canna Lily Burnt Orange
Silk Vine Leaves
Twine
Battery Tea Light

If ya got all the way down here, that means you read all this, I owe ya big thanks!

Thanks for stoppin' by...