I’m really bad about decorating for the holidays. I buy a few things here and there and always forget to put them out. I have the best intentions…really, I do! So this year I’ve vowed to step up my decorating game…a little bit. My daughter is a huge help with this and enjoys making the decorations instead of buying them. Sounds perfect to me!

I picked up this beautiful white pumpkin at our local farm and made a tutorial of how to make it look like a vintage baseball. I think with the off white color of the pumpkin, the subtle shading and the hand painted lines, this project has a great vintage and rustic feel to it. 

If you like this, you might also like my Baseball Bracelet or Baseball Wreath tutorials! 🙂

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What you’ll need to begin:

1. Thin detail paintbrush
2. 1/4″ paintbrush
3. Acrylic Paint: White, Black, Burnt Umber, and Bright Red. Kings’s Gold (optional)
4. Disposable cup of water for paint
5. Small disposable plate to mix paint
6. Scratch paper to practice
7. Pencil or Pen to trace line on pumpkin
8. White pumpkin

 

Directions

Start by taking your pen or pencil and lightly draw the baseball seam on the pumpkin.

 

Take your disposable plate and drop a few dabs of each color paint on it.

 

Wet your detail paintbrush and take a bit of black and mix with the burnt umber paint. Start to trace the pencil line with a light smooth stroke.

 

Now you can start to add some background shading. Wet your 1/4″ paintbrush and take a wee bit of the burnt umber and mix it with some white paint. If your pumpkin has a yellow cast to it, add a touch of the yellow paint. Paint a 1″ line on either side our your painted seam.  

 

A new baseball will have those nice and neat, bright red stitches. Since I wanted to have a vintage, used baseball look I added some brown to the red. Note: Don’t add yellow! That will turn it too orange. Connect the circles that you had made with a reddish brown painted line. You can apply more pressure to the brush in the middle of the line to make it appear to be a thicker line. Continue on both sides of the baseball seam to make the stitches.

Now you want to add some details with some shadows and highlights. For the shadows, take some black paint and add a small amount of red to it. You don’t want to use pure black paint. You can add water to the paint to create a glazed effect. It’s better to build on the shadow and highlights with light layers of paint instead of one heavy paint stroke for this project. It will add depth to the stitches. Start from the outside of the red stitch and lightly paint from the outside in to about halfway on the stitch. For the highlight, you can take pure red and paint the inside part of the stitch. Do this for all parts of the red stitch areas.

 

 

If you make a mistake, the acrylic paint will peel off of the pumpkin pretty easily.

I really like how the baseball pumpkin turned out. I think I’ll make one out of an artificial pumpkin next year so I can hoard it with my other holiday decorations.  🙂 I’m going to feel soooooo bad when I have to throw this one out when it starts to rot! 

 

 

Check out my baseball wreath or baseball bracelet if you like this project and love baseball.
More easy projects with step-by-step instructions.

 

 



 

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See you at the fields!