These little wooden DIY 2×4 pumpkins are just as cute as can be! I LOVE them! What I love even more is how effortless they are to create.
These little guys are so simple you can even get the kiddos involved! Make a whole family craft night out of it, they will LOVE it and you’ll remember that night every year you put them out.
If you LOVE this DIY be sure to check out these other fall crafts on my blog
- Easy DIY book pumpkin: rustic book page pumpkin from a Dollar Tree book
- DIY 2×4 candy corn
- How to make a pumpkin out of an old book: DIY BOOK PUMPKIN
- DIY no pattern fabric pumpkin: easy tutorial
- It’s Halloween witches diy leaning porch sign + FREE SVG
- DIY easy scrap wood pumpkins
To make it even easier I’ve put together this DIY MINI PUMPKIN CRAFT KIT. Everything you need to make these at home is delivered right to your door!
Don’t need a DIY adult craft kit? Here’s what you need to make these rustic pumpkins at home.
- 2×4 cut into sizes 3.5”, 4.5”, 6” {we use our RYOBI miter saw to cut all of our pieces}
- 1/2” wide wooden dowel cut into 3 2” pieces {you can find these at your local hardware store}
- sand paper {we use our cordless RYOBI sander for all of our projects}
- sponge brushes
- masking tape
- orange, brown, & white acrylic paint
- raffia
- rusty wire {you can find this at a local farm store}
- glue {we use a glue gun for our projects at the shop but we include this super strong glue in this craft kit}
- dark wax
- chip brush
Helpful tools
- wire cutters
- pliers
- glue gun/glue sticks
- scissors
- drill
- 1/2” drill bit
DIY WOODEN PUMPKINS
How to paint your 2×4 pumpkins
Cut all the pieces for your pumpkins and stems {dowel rod}. After you do that give them a quick sanding to knock down all the pokey edges from being cut. Next drill a 1/2” hole in the top of each pumpkin {this will be where you put the stem dowel rod, you only need it about 1/2” deep}. Be sure to wipe off all the sawdust.
Now for the fun!
Paint all of your pumpkins your base color. For mine, I painted all of the pumpkins orange. Be sure to apply a super thin coat, you should be able to see the wood grain through the paint. Once that dries apply a second coat, if desired, wait for that coat to dry and apply a 3rd. I almost never do 3 coats.
Now for the accents{I used white for my accent color}!
For mine, I left one pumpkin plain, added dots to one, and stripes to another.
The dots are SUPER EASY! Literally, take the end of your sponge brush and dip it in the accent color. Then dot it on the pumpkin you want to have dots. You can practice on a scrap piece of paper before going full force on your pumpkin. I just randomly dot around till I’m happy with the look. I do this all the way around the pumpkin.
Add some stripes. Using your masking tape off the areas you want to KEEP your base color. I did two stripes of white on my pumpkins. Pro tip…to keep the paint bleed down, never brush your paint into the tape, always brush away. Brushing it to the tape will force the paint under the tape and cause your paint to bleed. You don’t need to wait for the paint to dry to peel off the tape.
Once your blocks are dry you can distress them with sandpaper. Focus on the edges, corners, and do a light sanding to the face of the pumpkins. When you are done distressing with sandpaper, brush all the dust off with a cloth.
Give them a little more character with dark wax! I absolutely LOVE this stuff!
It takes VERY LITTLE WAX to achieve this look. Barely dip the very tip of the chip brush into the wax, and dab off onto a paper towel. If you get too much wax on your blocks they will look mudding instead of antiqued. Now brush the wax onto the corners and edges, dabbing to get more wax when you need more on your brush.
Then lightly brush over the face in both vertical and horizontal directions. This will give it an even more antiqued look.
Paint your stem, let it dry, and glue the stem in place with a good amount of glue. Let dry completely {f you have a glue gun you can use that for this step instead}.
After your glue has dried you are ready to adorn with the raffia and wire embellishments. To get the wire curled, simply wrap around the end of one of your sponge brushes.
Then take the wire and tie it around your stem.
Then gather a few strands of raffia and tie in a bow around the stem and wire. Trim if you desire.
I hope you enjoyed this rustic DIY fall craft tutorial. If you have any questions be sure to leave them in the comments below.
Happy Crafting,
Megan
