Pinvestigation: Acorn Pumpkins

A few weeks ago, I saw these super cute mini jack-o-lanterns made from acorns on Pinterest.

Tracing back through the pins, I saw the tutorial here. For me, it's a little too early for jack-o-lanterns but I was all for some mini pumpkins! I was sad for about a minute because I didn't think I had access to any acorns. But then I remembered we have an oak in the backyard that produced acorns! {Duh, Dianna. You've only lived here for [almost] 26 years} They're tiny but they work. Here's what they looked like. I picked them while they were still green and they began to turn brown while I waited for time to craft.

You start off by removing the cap of the acorn. I originally thought it still wanted me to leave the stem like this.

But then I used my master's degree and realized they wanted you to remove the entire top of the acorn and set them upside down like this.

I did run into the tiny problem of not having orange paint. Yes, yes, red + yellow = orange. But I wanted a perfect replicable orange when mixing my fire engine red and banana yellow. I had to paint my acorns three times for consistent coverage. The first coat was too red-orange so they looked like little tomatoes. The second coat was perfect pumpkin. Then my third and final coat was a little red still but it worked. It turned out like this.

Note, the little spikes on the acorn can be a bit prickly! My acorns were so tiny that I held them in between my thumb and pointer fingers and came away with a sore pointer.

After my three coats of paint, I added a little bit of brown to the top for a stem.

Note, the color orange of the pumpkin is more like the first picture I showed (the one above this one) than these. I didn't have the best lighting/camera.

Aren't they cute? Best of all, minus the cost of the paint (which I already had), they're FREE!

I'm thinking I might not be completely done with them yet. I'm currently brainstorming an idea for a mini pumpkin patch. We'll see if it develops past the brain stage. And when it gets closer to Halloween, I think I'll pick a few of the bigger ones and draw little faces on them.

Let the fall decorating begin!

2013 update:

I'm sharing this post at these amazing link parties.