It’s decorative gourd season, and as luck would have it, it’s also metallic spray paint season! (Unofficially, but every season is metallic spray paint season in my opinion.) I decided to combine my passions for miniature squash and covering things in glitter by creating a festive, fall-themed centerpiece. Read on to learn how you can make one too.
What you’ll need:
1) A few objects found in nature. I found that leaves worked startlingly well, as long as they were completely dry when collected, as did a twig that I painted as an afterthought and forgot to take a picture of.
2) Miniature gourds. My housemate bought these ones at the Mt. Vernon farmer’s market. IF you can’t find any, you can just use whatever you find outside, and it’ll be just as cute.
3) Metallic spray paint. I used a miniature bottle that I got at Pat Catan’s for about $3.
4) A small box. I used a leftover Julep box, but a shoebox or an Amazon package would work perfectly as well.
What to do:
1) Shake the spray paint can for one or two minutes. At first, I ignored this, and then wondered why it was so hard to get anything to come out of the nozzle.
2) After collecting your supplies, grab something you can cover the ground with and go outside. I used a big cardboard box, because it was windy, and I didn’t want the paint to blow into my face or onto the side of an NCA. Newspapers, notes you no longer care about, or your nemesis’s sheets would do the job as well.
3) Start spraying! I’d recommend two coats if you want your decorations to be completely opaque; the paint usually dries enough for a second coat in the time it takes you to paint something else, so you won’t have to wait around for long.
4) Leave everything you’ve sprayed outside for at least half an hour so that it can completely dry and the smell can dissipate somewhat.
5) Think about apologizing to your neighbors, because the smell has surely drifted through their open windows by now. Decide to feign innocence instead.
6) Assemble your masterpiece! Though my first instinct was ALL GOLD EVERYTHING, I decided to use the things I spray painted as shiny accents mixed in with everything else, which made the whole thing less likely to be horribly tacky. (Ignore the duct tape holding the box together. It just adds character.