This hot glue pumpkin is so pretty! Have you ever used hot glue to decorate pumpkins?! It’s such a fun way to add style to your pumpkin without the mess of carving.
Draw lines and patterns with a glue gun to create a super cool textured look. Then add a finishing touch with your favourite colour of paint. It’s such a unique and creative fall decor idea!
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How to Make a Glue Gun Pumpkin
Materials:
- Pumpkin (real or fake)
- Metallic acrylic paint
Equipment:
Watch the step-by-step video tutorial:
Instructions:
Step 1: Find what you need
- Gather your supplies and materials.
Step 2: Add hot glue to the pumpkin
- Let your glue gun heat up, and begin adding glue to the pumpkin.Here we started with a vertical line going from the top of the pumpkin to the bottom.
- Repeat, adding more lines around, dividing the pumpkin into sections.
- Next, add diagonal lines leading from one vertical line to the next.
- Continue making diagonal lines around the pumpkin. We spaced our lines out so they go between the lines from the previous column.
- Once the glue is completely dry (this will happen fairly quickly), use your fingers or a pair of tweezers to remove any wispy glue strings from the pumpkin.Try to remove as many as you can, because once you paint the pumpkin they’ll stand out quite a bit and look messy.
Step 3: Paint the pumpkin
- Choose a paint colour and begin brushing it onto the pumpkin.Be careful not to get any paint on the stem, and angle your brush onto the pumpkin so it gets evenly covered between the textured lines of glue.
- Continue until the whole pumpkin (except the bottom) is painted.Allow to dry.
- Repeat, adding 1 to 2 more coats of paint, until the pumpkin is well covered and you can’t see any orange through the paint.Again, allow to dry.
- Your hot glue pumpkin is complete!
Helpful Tips:
- Cover the base of the stem with painter’s tape to keep paint from getting on it.
- Sketch out an idea for your glue design! Start on paper and then lightly draw the pattern onto the pumpkin with pencil, pen, or marker before adding the glue.
- Don’t like how the hot glue pattern looks? Don’t worry, you can peel the glue right off and try again!
What kinds of designs are best for a hot glue pumpkin?
Any kind of simple design works well to decorate your pumpkin. We love the fancy look of the swirls, but lines or geometric shapes also look great.
You can even give your pumpkin a boho makeover and draw flowers, vines, or hearts with the glue gun.
Should I use a real or fake pumpkin to make a hot glue pumpkin?
You can use a fake craft pumpkin or a real pumpkin to make your hot glue pumpkin. We used both types, and while both of them worked, the glue stuck a lot better to the plastic pumpkin.
And if you want to decorate indoors, the foam pumpkins are the top choice. They’ll last long-term, giving you a decoration you can use year after year.
The plus for real pumpkins is that they’re nicer looking, giving you unique shapes with natural looking stems. But they need to be kept outside, or else they’ll go bad. And even then, real pumpkins won’t last more than a couple months, at best.
What glue gun do you recommend for making a hot glue pumpkin?
You can technically use any type of glue gun. If you’re working with younger kids, a low temp glue gun is always preferred.
However, for the very best results we definitely recommend a really hot glue gun. The hot glue comes out of the gun a lot more smoothly on a hot setting, which, in turn, creates more even, flowing lines.
This hot glue pumpkin is so fun to make! Have you ever thought of using a glue gun to create texture on a pumpkin?!
We really enjoyed making glue gun art flowers, so we thought we’d try the technique on a pumpkin. And the results speak for themselves – it’s such a cool way to make your own classy autumn decor.
Here’s even more pumpkin decorating ideas:
Our book Low-Mess Crafts for Kids is loaded with 72 fun and simple craft ideas for kids! The projects are fun, easy and most importantly low-mess, so the clean up is simple!
Where to buy:
You can purchase Low-Mess Crafts for Kids from Amazon, or wherever books are sold:
Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Books-A-Million | Indiebound | Amazon Canada
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