DIY Trick or Treat bag for Halloween

Our colour palettes, just like out wardrobe has just got a whole lot more Autumnal.  As we come up to the scariest month of the year, we decided to transform our popular Pumpkin tutorial from pretty to  scary and made our own bag for a little Trick or Treating fun this Halloween.

Materials we used: 

Black gift bag from Paperchase 

DecoArt Americana in 

Tangelo Orange, Titanium White, Primary Yellow, 

Avocado, Burnt Umber, Lamp Black.  

(If you don't have the exact colours listed above but have something similar, use that). 

Luxe Label brushes 

No 8 Angle Brush

No 8 Flat Brush 

Luxe Liner Brush 

Lettering - Uni Posca Paint Pen (fine) in White

Tracing and Transfer Paper 

Pen or Pencil to transfer the design

For this tutorial, you can find our pattern here. 

Once you have transferred your design onto your chosen project, because they will sit behind the pumpkins, paint the leaves and add the vines with your liner brush (optional).   

We have used the flat brush ruffle stroke to create these but you can paint your leaves however you wish so if you feel more comfortable with comma stroke leaves choose those.  

Next, base coat your pumpkin with the flat brush and add light and shade the two side pumpkins as shown in last years tutorial. Again, as these will sit behind the larger centre pumpkin, you only need to paint up to the centre pumpkin.   

Note: When adding light and shade, we swapped the flat brush for the Angled Shader as it allows you to be more precise when adding colour.  However, feel free to try both and find your preference.  

Once dry, base coat and shade the centre pumpkin as shown in the tutorial.  When this is dry, looking at the design, you need to bring the centre pumpkin to the front of the design. To do this, float a little Burnt Umber around the outer edges of the larger pumpkin where the centre pumpkin meets the smaller pumpkins as indicated below.  

Once the centre pumpkin is dry, transfer the face to the large pumpkin and using your liner brush, fill it using Lamp Black.  

Finally, fill in the lettering using the white paint pen.  

Once dry, fill your bag with treats ready for Trick or Treaters to pick from or take it out to fill with candy yourself ;)  

Paint your own pumpkin tray - perfect for Halloween

You will need:

You Can Folk It! Brushes & Tools: 

Medium Liner, Flat Brush, Dotting Tool

DecoArt Americana: Tangelo Orange, Burnt Umber, Warm White, 

Avocado, Bright Yellow

Other: Practice paper, tracing paper, transfer paper

Before painting your project, practice all the elements on the practice paper. (You can find the patterns on our Folk It patterns Pinterest board.)  It's always a good idea to try painting the larger Pumpkin from the practice sheet first before moving onto the smaller ones.

1. Add a touch of Burnt Umber to Tangelo Orange and paint around the stem

2. Add a touch of Burnt Umber to Warm White and paint the stem

3. Add water to Burnt Umber and with this watery mix & your liner brush apply uneven diagonal lines to the stem

4. Add a touch of Tangelo Orange to Warm White and starting at the back paint each section of the Pumpkin using a 'C' stoke. 

5. Apply a second coat of this mix if necessary.  Tangelo Orange is a transparent colour, therefore we are creating a base so that the colour stays vibrant.  If you are painting onto a light coloured surface you can omit this step.

6. Next apply a coat of Tangelo Orange to the front sections.

7. Float Burnt Umber. (This is a technique we teach in our Flat Brush Cupcakes and Babushka kit) Before beginning this step, study the pumpkin below for a moment, bearing the following in mind... The Burnt Umber is going to create a shade, so we are floating the darker colour to any section that is behind another.  

8. Float Warm White on the edges of the Pumpkin that sit in front of another.  By using this technique, we help flat objects take shape. To the eye, dark colours recede so look further away and light colours advance and so appear closer. 

9. Make a wash with your flat brush using plenty of water and Bright Yellow and apply over the whole Pumpkin, see how this has reduced the whiteness of the floated highlights, this is a great way to dull your floated colours if you have just started learning...it also gives the Pumpkin a lovely warm glow.

10. The leaves are created using the wiggle stroke as taught in the Butterflies lesson, a comma stroke using the flat brush and combining the 2 together.  If you have not yet progressed to this level, then use your favourite leaf. 

11. The blossoms are as taught in the Oriental Blossom Lesson.  Use Warm White to paint each of the Petals and apply dots using Burnt Umber & Tangelo Orange.  

Once you are happy with your skills, you can create your final design.  If you wanted to create your own wreath design, you can learn more about how to do that here. To create your wreath, begin by painting the pumpkins.  When painting the stalks, try to paint them in different directions to add variety. 

Next, add your leaves.  Using single leaves and clusters, aim to fill the majority of your circle.  If you do not feel comfortable using the ruffled technique, use whichever technique you do feel comfortable with.  We painted leaves in a few sizes, again to add interest to the design.  

Next, add single blossom flowers around the wreath - don't worry if they overlap areas you have already painted.  Finally, identify any areas that look empty and add dots (using the small end of your dotting tool) and small comma strokes using your liner brush.  

To seal your work, you could use DecoArt wax however, if you have painted a tray as we have done, it is better to opt for a couple of coats of varnish to protect your project.  

Decorating Pumpkins the Folk It way

As we welcome in the signs of autumn, the golden leaves and colder weather, it also means that its nearly time for Halloween. For some, this event is the best day of the year and while we are some way behind the US for celebrating the holiday, it is certainly becoming a bigger deal in the UK as the years go by. 

As pumpkins fill the supermarkets, we could not resist the urge to take a few home to decorate.  We could have got out the knife but we were inspired by this recent blog post we saw and decided to follow the 'no carving' trend. 

If you want to have a go at decorating your own, here's what you will need: 

DecoArt's Chalky Finish paint in Carbon

Paintbrush - we used a DecoArt 2" flat brush 

DecoArt metallic lustre wax in Gold Rush 

Luxe label No 3 or 4 Round Brush 

DecoArt Americana acrylic in warm white 

Paper towel 

First we painted the pumpkin in DecoArt Chalky Finish paint. As we keep saying, the beauty of this paint is that it needs no prep - grab your pumpkin and get painting. It gives a gorgeous matte finish which gives the perfect look for Halloween. 

Paint one coat of Carbon onto the pumpkin.

Once this coat was dry, (you could speed it up with a hairdryer if you needed to) we dry brushed the pumpkin with DecoArt Metallic wax using long vertical strokes to follow the curves of the pumpkin. To do this, lightly press the brush into the wax and remove the excess by brushing it onto the paper towel. When the brush feels almost dry to the touch, lightly brush the wax over the pumpkin. If you wish to build the colour, add a second layer of the wax to the pumpkin. 

Create a thing of beauty using Metallic lustre!

Now comes the fun bit! Grab your round brush, your chosen colour paint and get Folking! The beauty of this project is that you can paint whatever design you want onto it.  The curved surface of the pumpkin presents its challenges when painting but you can make your design as simple or as intricate as you wish. The important part is to have fun with it. 

We chose to decorate ours with comma strokes, flowers (from our bluebirds kit) and dots. Let your imagination go wild!

Here is our beautiful Folked up pumpkin 

Now we've got the bug we are going to have fun carving one.... 

If you have created a Folk It pumpkin, or if we have inspired you to have a go at painting one up for Halloween, we would love to see it. 

Happy Folking...and Happy Halloween, 

Carol x