I thought I'd share how to make your own checkerboard faux pumpkins. You just need white, black and gold (or silver) acrylic paint and your faux pumpkin. You can use this same concept for adding harlequin or polka dots the mix. The key is painting all your pumpkin stems gold (or silver) to tie them all together. This is not a quick project, but it is fun when you're done, and the pumpkins will last every year!!!

All you need is some paint and a faux pumpkin. I used the tubes of acrylic paint at Michael's and a small bottle of gold paint (you don't need much gold).

Start by painting your faux pumpkin stem gold. Or you can paint it after the checkerboard. Painting all the stems gold or silver really ties them together!. Next paint your faux pumpkin white or begin with a white faux pumpkin. Let the pumpkin dry over night as plastic takes awhile to dry.



Next use a black sharpie or pencil to make circles heading down your pumpkin. I spaced mine about an inch part for the small pumpkin and closer to 2" for the bigger one. I eyeballed but you could measure.

Use the grooved vertical lines on the pumpkin for adding your vertical lines. Make sure you have an odd number of sections before you paint. Mine all had an odd number of grooves. Start filling in every other square with black paint. 

When your pumpkin is all checkered let it dry, then paint the stem gold. I can't believe how much nicer the faux pumpkins look with gold stems!!! I painted some black, white, and orange pumpkins stems gold as well so they all tie together.

When dry take the pumpkins outside and give them a good couple sprays of clear varnish so they will be nice and shiny. Now enjoy your new pumpkins!!!