Halloween 2011 Part 1: baby zebra and painted pumpkins

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Last year Jer carved a pumpkin in the shape of a B for our new little B-man (he was about 3 weeks old).  This year, since we didn't have time to carve 3 pumpkins today, I decided that we would paint them!  I got my idea from none other than Young House Love.  :)  Gotta love that family!

But first we started our day off with a trip to the grocery store...with our zebra in tow.  He actually wore his headpiece the whole time.  He must really love being a zebra.

 First, I used some painter's tape to act as my "templates."

Then I drew the face, dots and B on the tape.  B for Boston, polka dots for my pumpkin and a face for Jer's.

I printed out a B on the computer and used that as my template to draw onto my pumpkin.  There was no way I was going to attempt to free hand a B.  It wouldn't look pretty.

The teeth on the face look a little strange.  Once I drew them on, I decided that they needed to be a little shifted, but I knew exactly where I needed to cut.  :)

Once my drawings were just right, I took my exacto knife and cut around the lines which left the painter's tape exactly where I didn't want my paint.  I always have several (as in about 30) cans of paint stored in our garage so I rummaged through to find the paint colors I wanted.  Jer's favorite color is blue so we used a royal blue for his, B's new rocking chair is aqua so I decided to use that color (plus, I love that color a lot!) and I used white on mine since there was really no other color I thought would go with the blues.

After I painted them, I didn't let them dry (if you let them dry then you risk the chance of paint being torn off when tearing off your tape) before I tore off my painter's tape.  And....

WHALLA....you have painted pumpkins!!

I love them!  The circles aren't perfect but you get the point.  :-)  It was a super quick and easy way to jazz up your pumpkins without having to make a mess while carving them.  Plus, we didn't have the time so this was the next best thing!

We can't wait to hand out our candy tonight to the gazillion kiddos that come through our neighborhood!  Boston will be dressed up in his second halloween costume!  Very excited.

~Jeni