Halloween is one of our favorite holidays, and we can’t wait to see all the spooky surprises this year has in store. One of our favorite ways to prep for the holiday is by decorating pumpkins. Since October 26 is National Pumpkin Day, we ‘re kicking off Halloween week with a tutorial to show you just how easy it is to design and paint your own stenciled pumpkins. The end result looks like it took endless hours, but DIY Painted Pumpkins are actually easy and fun to create. Read on to see how you can personalize your fall décor today!

What You’ll Need: 

• Pumpkins (as many as you’d like – we used three)
• Permanent maker (fine-tipped works best)
• Masking tape
• Stencil of your design
• Black acrylic paint
• Palette or paper plate
• Fine-tipped paintbrushes

How-To:

Step 1: Gather all of your supplies. You can create your own stencil or buy one pre-made! We drew our Eagle design on thin cardboard and cut out the center.

Step 2: Tape the stencil to the pumpkin with masking tape. Make sure it’s secure!

Step 3: Using a fine-tipped permanent marker, draw around the stencil to outline your design on the pumpkin.

Step 4: Take off the stencil and begin filling in your design with paint. You can use a palette or a paper plate to hold the paint.We kept it minimalistic using black paint only, but you could use multiple colors if you’d like. Be sure to go slowly so that you stay inside the stenciled design.

Step 5: Let it dry! In the meantime, continue with your other pumpkins.

Happy National Pumpkin Day from AEO! How will you decorate your pumpkins this year? Tell us in the comments below, and show us your creations using #AEOSTYLE.

Tags: DIY, Fall, Halloween, Holidays, Pumpkins