The Pumpkin Minions

One thing I love about crafters is that they make a project look easy.  The funny part is when it does not even come close to look as it should, or better yet, it comes out great but becomes an epic fail the next day (as in my case). 

So this year's big thing is Pumpkin minions.  It looked easy so off I went to get everything needed.  First were the pumpkins.  I told the kids we need more oblong shaped pumpkins instead of short and fat ones.  I figured this would be easy to do because people usually pick through for the nicer rounded pumpkins.  Nope, not easy.  Every pumpkin was nicely round and plump.  But we manage to find 4 that would work for us.  It took some searching though.  

Next was the paint.  This was also a huge task.  I needed big bottles for four pumpkins and the only ones available were washable paint.  That wouldn't work since the pumpkins would be outside, so I had the brilliant idea to just buy mod podge to seal the paint.   

So after having everything ready to go we began painting.  And.......the yellow for the minions did not work!  Really??   It was not showing up on the pumpkins, so I read the label again and realized that I accidentally pick up the poster board paint.  Face plant into palm moment here.   I wasn't about to get more paint, so I started looking around the house to see what I could use.  I found my can of gold paint, so I thought that this would look cool.  

It took us three days but we finally finished our minions.  I mod podged it and it turned out awesome!  The pumpkins looked like glass.  The kids loved them.  So after letting them dry a bit, I put them out side for the world to see.  :) 

So this morning, Kevin told me something was up with the pumpkins.  I went outside and to my disappointment, the mod podge became milky colored again.  Undoubtedly the mod podge does not do well with damp air and humidity. (so much for my brilliant idea)  I brought the little guys inside and started peeling the glue away.  It was a huge mess.

So back to square one!  Sadly the mod podge peeled off a lot of the gold paint (which I am out of) ,  but it gave the pumpkins a retro look which I kind of like.  I wanted the pumpkins gold because the kids and I are planning on keeping the Minions out through Christmas. Our plans were to dress our minions up in Santa hats for some of our holiday pictures.  We still will be able to do that, just with the minions not being as Christmas gold as we planned.  So the whole morning, I fixed up the pumpkins the best that I could.  They are not as cute as the first time, but I think we can come to love their new look. 

I spent way more time on these pumpkins than I really wanted to but I learned some valuable lessons this Halloween pumpkin fun for next time.  1) Mod Podge is not for outside use and 2) stay away from paint.  I know nothing about painting, what type of paint to use, and I have absolutely no patience for drying paint.  Stick with material.  Material is good stuff.  

Holidays are the best!