A lot of our posts this Halloween season have been whimsical or party-themed. But we also love having some more traditional/fancy autumn decor in our homes as well so this week our pumpkin projects will be geared toward that style. First up, embossed pumpkins!
Lately I have been somewhat obsessed with embossing and exploring all the fun uses for it. I am sure a lot of you have been embossing for years and I am just late to the game. I think I always associated it with scrapbooking which I was never very skilled at. However, I am learning it can be used for so much more! So after finally buying some embossing supplies last month I decided to try it on pumpkins. And I am happy to announce that it totally works and the result is super pretty!
Materials
- Pumpkins (I used real ones but plastic is probably better) //
- Embossing ink or pens (I used this ink and these pens) //
- Stamps //
- Embossing power (I used this one) //
- A heat tool //
- Optional: embossing magic
You can totally see the shine on the pumpkins – it even looks a little bit like gold foil which I have been crushing on lately. It is not perfect (this one is stamped) but it is gorgeous just the same.
Instructions
If using stamps:
1. Take your stamp and thoroughly cover it in the ink.
2. Press the stamp on the pumpkin. Repeat using your desired pattern
If using the pen:
1. Use the embossing pen to draw any shape/s you want. I did simple triangles – you could also do any Halloween graphic, a phrase, name, etc.!
2. Repeat the pattern as desired.
For both techniques:
3. Gently cover the ink with the embossing powder. As you can see below, this might get a little messy so you may want to use the magic pad to remove excess powder. Do this before you use the heat tool!
4. Use the heat tool to melt the ink. With the Darice tool all I had to do was plug it in, turn it on and place it 2 inches above the powder and wait until I could see it melt (20 seconds or so).
The powder almost magically becomes shiny and secure. I love how the gold stands out on the white pumpkins but you can buy embossing powder in any color so if you have orange pumpkins you can try the gold or buy some bold powder colors (I think purple and teal would be fun).
Now, a quick note on the pumpkins. I used normal, live pumpkins and they worked great. However, about a week in I realized that the heat slightly ruined the pumpkins (basically around the design the pumpkin is puffy). From far away they look fine still but I would recommend using plastic pumpkins if you are a perfectionist. The stamps also worked pretty well and would work even better if you have flatter pumpkins/squash to use them on.
