A "Gourd"-geous pumpkin decorating class

If you haven’t noticed, I’m kinda into Halloween! Only 22 more days left, people! Although, for whatever reason I have no idea what Andy and I are going to be for Halloween this year. I’m secretly hoping this bump will appear! I guess our DIY Halloween costumes are typically pretty last minute. Anyhow, I also kinda love pumpkin decorating. I super appreciate talented, clever pumpkin carvers, like the geniuses behind all of these pumpkin carving ideas. But, I’m way better at alternative ideas, and this weekend I was lucky enough to teach a “gourd”- geous pumpkin decorating class at Ikea! It was a family friendly event with lots of happy kids and parents! Here are a few of our fun thumb tack and paint creations:

The two pumpkins we were making at Ikea were the thumbtack pumpkin and the spider web pumpkin from this post. I also made a tiny cursive boo pumpkin for the occasion, that is not pictured below.

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We had all of the supplies to make these guys, but I gave everyone lots of options and ideas to use the thumbtack in other ways too. You can use thumbtack to make any design, monogram, shape or pattern your little heart desires. And I love that people came up with lots more ideas too!

There were kiddos of all ages with big imaginations, one mom said her little girl named her pumpkin George Washington on the way to class and so she made George! Impressive, huh?!

Here are 2 sweet sisters who used thumbtacks to make a skeleton face:

Jenn made a fun monogram pumpkin and used thumb tacks on a faux pumpkin, and Lani crafted up a super cute chevron pattern! These girls are my real life blog friends, gotta love blogging!

Tisa and her daughter worked together to make 2 really awesome pumpkins! One was a polka dotted thumb tack pumpkin and the other a blue spider web pumpkin:

An action shot of the kiddos decorating pumpkins and me sticking my big head in someones pumpkin:

My Austin bestie, Rachelle, brought her BF, Andy so my Andy had a friend. Rachelle whipped up a fun thumb tack “Boo” pumpkin!

Oh and I wish I would have gotten a picture of the final product, but this lady was working on a really fun Dia de los Muertos pumpkin, check it out:

There was lots of thumb tack pumpkin inspiration! Have you ever used thumb tacks to decorate pumpkins? It will certainly make your pumpkin last longer! A giant thank you to everyone who came out to Ikea and decorated pumpkins with me!

For more pumpkin decorating and carving ideas, check these out:

If you need some DIY Halloween costume inspiration, here ya go!