I attempted to paint pumpkins this weekend. My first attempt was with tempera paint which would not opaquely cover my pumpkin no matter how many coats I applied. After brainstorming a little, a co-worker suggested I try spraying the pumpkin with a workable fixative. I did, and it didn’t make the tempera paint work any better.

So, I decided to purchase some acrylic paint instead. Next I covered sections of my pumpkin with masking tape and with an exacto knife, I began to make leaf stencils for it. The masking tape however, peeled off the workable fixative which, didn’t pose a problem so I continued to paint in my stencils. After applying a couple of coats and letting my pumpkin dry I excitedly began to peel away the remaining masking tape only to find that it took a lot of the paint with it.

Needless to say, my dreams of a fall leaf pumpkin are dashed. However, I was able to successfully paint one pumpkin striped and one polka-dotted. So the weekend wasn’t a total loss.