Fun Fall Decor: Chalk Painted Pumpkins With Polka Dots and School Spirit

Are you looking for ideas for fun fall decor? Check out my recent simple, fun pumpkin painting project! I love painted pumpkins and these cute little chalk painted pumpkins make the perfect fall decor! Adding some fun school and team spirit themed colors are a twist on the traditional ideas for painted pumpkins.

Chalk Painted Pumpkins: Easy and Fun

I picked up these cute little off-white pumpkins at Hobby Lobby. They come in different sizes and these are the medium size. With the 40% off sale I paid around $12 for the three pumpkins. They are sweet even just plain white, but of course if you love to paint, these little pumpkins are a perfect canvas for a fun chalk paint project!

The options are endless for chalk painted pumpkins, from classic, textured, stripes and other patterns, farmhouse style, stenciled and even cute pumpkins with fabric designs on them! However, this time of year in the fall around our house we are all into fall football season! We enjoy high school football especially since my daughter cheers, but also college football and other fall sports. So this led me to come up with these super cute school spirit chalk themed painted pumpkins! Adding the polka dots just gave them an extra cute touch. They were simple and fun to create and turned out really cute!

Steps To Creating School Spirit Chalk Painted Pumpkins With Polka Dots

STEP 1:

These pumpkins were a little slick and I wanted my chalk paint to stick. Using Dixie Belle Slick Stick adds a nice primer base coat to ensure good adherence of your chalk paint. You can find more about Slick Stick here: https://dixiebellepaint.com/slick-stick/. Slick sticks work great on any slick surface, like laminate or plastics and glass.

STEP 2:

After the Slick Stick is dry add your chalk paint. I used these Dixie Belle colors: Caviar, Fluff, and their older originial style Metallic Gold. I also used Annie Sloan Antibes Green. You can find info on Dixie Belle Chalk Mineral Paints here: https://dixiebellepaint.com/paint/ and Annie Sloan Chalk Paint here: https://www.anniesloan.com/annie-sloan-products/chalk-paint.

I used 2 coats on most of these little pumpkins. Each coat takes about an hour to dry in most climates. I used more coats on the Metallic Gold but that has to do with the consistency of that metallic being thinner and requiring more coverage.

STEP 3

After I was satisfied with my coverage I worked on the detail, the fun part! Using a round foam stenciling pouncer I applied circles on the pumpkins. These pouncer work great for stenciling and they come in a pack with several sizes of round pouncers. I used the smaller pouncer for these circles. To apply the paint with the pouncer, the most important step is to use very little paint. Lightly dip your pouncer into the chalk paint and then dab off the majority of the paint onto a paper plate or towel. Next, gently apply the paint directly to the pumpkin with the pouncer. If you’d like to check these out, here is a link to these pouncers on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Martha-Stewart-Crafts-Foam-Pouncer/dp/B007C7XPME

STEP 4

Once your polka dots are dry, then use a pencil to outline our letters. You could use stickers I think or a stencil but with the non-flat surface of the pumpkin I found it easier to outline the letters with pencil. Next, I used a detail paintbrush to fill in the letters with chalk paint. After the lettering was dry I again used the detail brush to outline the letters. However, I did use a Metallic Sharpie pen to outline the letters on one of the pumpkins and this worked great! I think you could likely use a Sharpie or paint pen to do the lettering, which might be easier.

STEP 5

Lastly, once I was happy with the lettering on the pumpkins I added my top coat or sealer. You could use a clear wax or a clear coat to seal the paint. I used Dixie Belle Clear Coat in Satin finish. Check it out here at: https://dixiebellepaint.com/satin-clear-coat/. One thing that is important to know about the clear coat sealers is that they go on whitish but dry clear. It can be scary at first until you see that it dries clear.

So Easy To Create Fun Fall Decor!

Chalk Painting pumpkins make it so easy to add some fun to your fall decor! These little pumpkins are a fun addition to your school and team themed celebrations this fall! They would work great for table or party decor! They would even be cute without the lettering, if you just prefer to do the base color and then the polka dots using your school or team colors!

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I’d love to hear about your chalk painting projects! If you are a new chalk painter, feel free to check out my blog post on chalk painting basics: https://simplyrefinished.com/how-to-chalk-paint-furniture-makeovers-made-simple/ and this one on some simple tips for your first ever chalk painting projects: https://simplyrefinished.com/five-tips-for-a-success-with-your-first-furniture-chalk-paint-project/

If you have any questions or comments about this project or any chalk painting projects or ideas let me know how I can help!

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