Growing up, my family always carved pumpkins into intricate jack-o-lanterns. As much as I love a good old fashioned jack-o-lantern, this year I wanted something EASY. I’ve also been on a big chalk painting kick lately.

With this in mind, I headed to a local pumpkin patch in search for a pumpkin that would make a good chalkboard.

There were SO many lovely gourds to choose from, like this beauty.

Only problem, it was so short and bulbous that I knew it wouldn’t make a good canvas for anything I’d want to write on my chalkboard pumpkin.

So I kept looking … and came across this lovely specimen!

So, I grabbed my new pumpkin, and headed off to get the rest of my materials.

Although you could easily use a jar of black chalkboard paint, this would take forever and a day to paint a large pumpkin. So I decided to try out chalkboard spray paint for the first time. I’ve got to say, for a can that cost about $5, it worked really well!

I only needed a single coat to get the look I wanted to achieve. You can find the paint I bought here.

I allowed the paint to dry about an hour. In hindsight I should have allowed a bit longer, because when I picked up my pumpkin to take it inside, I smudged a bit of paint off.

I wanted the stem to be a bold contrast to the black chalkboard pumpkin skin, so I opted for gold glitter glue, which I applied with a cheap sponge brush.

All that was left to do was to use my handy dandy chalk marker to write something fun and cute!

What’s your favorite non-traditional way to decorate pumpkins for fall?

xoxo, Charlotte