For this project, we're skipping the traditional painted pumpkin and making one entirely out of glass! We're using pieces of broken orange vases, glass pumpkins, and other orange glass scraps to build a dimensional pumpkin right on an 8x8 canvas.  And the best part? You don't need to paint a pumpkin shape or follow a pattern. We're just arranging glass pieces until they start looking like a pumpkin!

Step 1: Tape Off the Grass Area

We're going to start with a really simple painted background. Nothing fancy, because our glass pumpkin is going to be the star of the show! Take a piece of painter's tape and place it across the bottom of your 8x8 canvas, about 1½ inches from the bottom. This will separate our sky from our grass and keep the blue paint out of the green area.

Step 2: Paint a Soft Blue Sky

Start by adding some white acrylic paint to the upper portion of your canvas and spreading it around with a flat brush. You don't need a super thick coat, so if you've added too much pa...

Pumpkins and gnomes in one project? Yes, please! This little guy has a pumpkin-shaped body, floppy green hat, fluffy white beard, and the cutest dimensional glass sunflower tucked into his hat. We’re using a tall, narrow canvas for this project and combining acrylic painting with hand-cut glass and resin. The loose brushstrokes, little black details, and handmade glass flower are what give him his personality!

Step 1: Transfer the Gnome to the Canvas

Position your pumpkin gnome tracer on the canvas and secure it with a little tape. Slide graphite paper underneath the tracer and use a stylus to trace the entire design - the hat, nose, beard, and pumpkin-shaped body. Don’t worry if every line transfers perfectly. You can easily adjust the shapes as you paint.

Step 2: Paint the Pumpkin Body

Start with Burnt Orange and fill in the entire pumpkin-shaped body. Work carefully around the beard since we’ll eventually be painting that area white and gray. Keeping most of the orange out now...

Who says pumpkins have to be orange? For this project, we’re giving a classic fall pumpkin a completely different look with soft shades of blue against a dramatic black background. 

This is a fun one if you like a looser painting style because we’re intentionally letting some of that black canvas show through, layering in imperfect highlights and shadows, and finishing the pumpkin with just a touch of sparkling Starfire glass and resin. The result is simple, dimensional, and a little unexpected for fall.

Step 1: Prepare Your Black Canvas

Start by painting your canvas completely black and letting it dry.

Once dry, transfer your pumpkin design onto the canvas. I used a white watercolor pencil because it shows up beautifully against the dark background. You could also use a light-colored fabric transfer paper.

This pumpkin design was traced so that the pumpkin sits toward the bottom of the tall canvas, leaving plenty of that black background visible above it.  

Step 2: Base Coat...

This scarecrow is such a fun fall project because it mixes painting with some unexpected dimensional details. We’re starting with an 11x14 canvas painted black, then building this sweet scarecrow with warm fall colors, a sunflower, glass, a wooden button, and (my favorite part!) real straw tucked right into the resin!

Step 1: Prepare the Canvas 

Start with an 11x14 canvas and give the entire surface two coats of black acrylic paint. Let it dry completely.

Next, use a chalk pencil to sketch your scarecrow onto the canvas. You can draw yours freehand or use a tracer to make this step easier. The design doesn’t need to be perfectly symmetrical. This guy is supposed to be a little whimsical and ragamuffin-looking!

Step 2: Base Coat the Scarecrow

Use FolkArt Camel and a flat brush to fill in the scarecrow’s face. Paint carefully around the nose so you can still see your original sketch. Use the same Camel color for the small neck area beneath his face. Don’t worry if your first coa...

This white pumpkin project has such a fun mix of rustic fall color and glass art details. The pumpkin itself stays soft and neutral with white and gray shading, while the background gets rich with rusty orange, red, and darker tones. Then the glass stem and resin finish give the whole piece that signature Art Shattered look.

For this project, we’re working on a 6x12 canvas with a squatty white pumpkin, a dark tabletop, a warm fall background, painted greenery, a glass stem, and a full resin coat.

This isn't your typical fall pumpkin - this one's pink, sparkly, and packed with personality! In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to add shading and highlights using directional light, master wet-on-wet blending, and finish your piece with glass, seed beads, and glossy resin. We even topped it off with a little gold pen detail and green vitrigraph for extra flair!

Understanding Highlights & Shadows

Before we ever touched the paint, we walked through a basic but important concept: light source and directional shading. To add dimension to a flat shape, like a circle or pumpkin, you need to decide where your light is coming from. We placed a sketch of a sun on the top left of our canvas to guide us throughout the painting process. This way, each pumpkin section could be shaded and highlighted appropriately based on where the "sunlight" would hit.

Step 1: Sketching the Pink Pumpkin

Using a pencil, we loosely sketched a squatty pumpkin with a curly stem and marked out individual pumpki...

This project turns a little 8×8 canvas into a dimensional, glam pumpkin using modeling paste, animal-print foil, and a thin resin coat. We’ll sculpt the pumpkin, paint it black so the foil pops, burnish on a cheetah pattern, add a gold stem, and finish with clear glass accents.

Step 1: Tone the background

Brush a thin coat of white over the entire canvas to reduce the “grab” of raw fabric. While it’s still a little damp, scrub slate gray along the lower third and fade it upward so the tone softens as it rises. Wipe the brush clean and touch a hint of gray higher up to keep the field from looking flat, then dry the surface thoroughly with a quick blast of a hair dryer.

Step 2: Lightly sketch the pumpkin

Make a small tick mark about an inch and a half down from the top edge to reserve breathing room for the stem. Sketch a big oval—the “zero”—for the pumpkin body, then add two gentle parentheses that curve down and back up into the base so your form reads as three fat ribs. Add a si...

We’re back with a cozy fall favorite - an orange pumpkin with a rustic green-and-brown stem on a dramatic dark background. This is an “oldie but goodie” project that originally featured a black backdrop, but today we’re switching it up with a rich navy (Payne’s gray). The result? A bold, dimensional pumpkin with highlights, shadows, glass sparkle, and a glossy resin finish.

Step 1: Trace the Pumpkin

Secure your tracer to the canvas, tucking it slightly to the left so the pumpkin shape runs off the edge for a more natural look. Place graphite paper underneath and use a stylus or a pencil to trace the outline, including the stem. Leave the stem point simple for now - you’ll extend and detail it after painting the background.

Step 2: Base Coat the Pumpkin

Load your angled brush with Burnt Orange and paint one section at a time, following the tracer lines. Think of it like coloring in a coloring book - this is just your “ground coat” to block in color before adding shadows and highli...

Turn broken vases into beautiful pumpkin embellishments! In this tutorial, you'll learn how to cut curved glass pieces perfect for fall mixed media art, glass projects, or seasonal decor. We'll walk you through each step, from scoring and tapping the glass to safely honing and arranging it in your design. No need for fancy equipment - just a few basic tools, some safety gear, and a little patience.

Step 1: Prep Your Workspace and Safety Gear

Before you begin cutting any glass, set up a safe work area. Use a glass-cutting grid or tray to catch shards and wear cut-resistant gloves, safety goggles, and a mask to protect yourself from glass dust. Gather your tools: scoring tool, breaking pliers, wheeled nippers, and a honing stone. Have a paper towel nearby to clean off glass dust.

If you have a broken vase (or one you don’t mind repurposing), use it! In this case, I used a large thick vase that cracked in half. To make it manageable, gently tap the large piece with a hammer to break ...