Fall Pumpkin Sign: Dollar Tree Upcycle

Fall is here, and it’s time to break out all the fall decor! I really love decorating this time of year, and you’ve probably figured that out by now. Changing up my home so much in the last four months of the year can get expensive, so I’m frugal in the way that I get new pieces. I had a pumpkin sign from Dollar Tree, but it just wasn’t something that I wanted hanging in my house. I had a stick-on faux tile that I planned to add in my kitchen, and I thought, “What the heck? Let’s see what a faux tile pumpkin looks like.” So this fall pumpkin sign upcycle was born! I think that I’ll sit it in a small vignette in my kitchen by my husband’s coffee pot. If you like upcycling Dollar Tree signs, you might enjoy this pumpkin entryway keyholder, this 20 minute fall farmhouse sign, Halloween sign tutorial. You can also turn a $1 doormat into a beautiful fall welcome mat with my tutorial and gourd-geous free design (the design could be used on other decor as well)!

To upcycle a fall pumpkin sign you need:

pumpkin shaped sign (DT)
stick-on faux tile (DT)
acrylic paint- I used three colors, nutmeg brown, spiced carrot, and aqua. Dollar Tree does have some acrylic paints now, but mostly just simple, common colors.
paint brush for the stem and accent color
thick paper towels- I used auto paper towels.
hot glue gun & glue
twine (or other ribbon for the stem) (DT)
faux greenery or other flower (optional)- You can get this from DT or from elsewhere. I used an orange flower from Michael’s. It’s not really a flower, but the label on the bunch just says “bush.”
metal words (DT)- I used “harvest.”
Sharpie or other marker

I have gold paint in this picture, but I ended up using aqua instead.

Cut the Pumpkin Shape

First you will need to remove the metal leaf and raffia bow off of the pumpkin, if you have the same one that I bought. Be careful with the raffia because it will be placed back on the sign. Now you need to trace the pumpkin on the faux tile. Turn the tile upside-down, and lay the pumpkin shaped sign face-up on it. The tile is just wide enough to fit the pumpkin, so you’ll have to position it perfectly. Trace around it using the Sharpie.

The back of the tile with the fall pumpkin sign outlined on it with Sharpie. — Ignore the paper under my pumpkin! It’s what I used when I painted the tiles to keep paint off of my surfaces.

Use a good pair of scissors for this part because the tile is pretty thick and uneven. If your scissors aren’t nice and sharp they will make the lifted sections jagged. Cut just inside the marker line so that the tile fits the pumpkin perfectly.

Cutting the faux tile along the line that was drawn around the fall pumpkin sign.

Once the pumpkin shape is cut out, remove the backing from the faux tile, and place it on the back of the fall pumpkin sign. Make sure it’s even before you press it down. Now, the sticky part isn’t actually directly on the tile. There is a separate piece of plastic that has the adhesive on it. When you cut it, it may detach completely from the tile. If that happens, just use your hot glue gun, or other glue, to attach the tile to the pumpkin.

Lining up the faux tile that's cut in the pumpkin shape with the fall pumpkin sign.

Paint the Faux Tile on the Fall Pumpkin Sign

Paint the Stem

You can choose to paint the tile all one color, or paint the stem separately so it’s its own distinct part. I painted my stem with a light brown called nutmeg brown. For this part just use a regular paint brush and paint the stem section.

Painting the stem of the fall pumpkin sign with brown acrylic paint.

Paint the Pumpkin

Now the bottom part of the pumpkin with whatever color you choose. I used orange, but I am making another one for late fall using a deep, reddish brown called Spanish tile, so you can choose any color you’d like. Fold up several paper towels together and dip them in the paint. Begin applying it to the tile in circular motions. I used thick paper towels used in the automotive industry. My husband bought them from Auto Zone a while back, and they are so handy for crafting.

Update: I made a second faux tile pumpkin using burgundy as the main color. “Thankful” was painted English navy and copper was the accent color on the raised areas. It turned out beautiful. Use fun colors for simple decor and metallics and darker colors for a “dressier” look.

Thick blue paper towels made for automotive being used to apply orange acrylic paint to the tile on the fall pumpkin sign in circular patterns.

The paint won’t be thick across the entire pumpkin. I really like the look. I wanted a thin layer, with some places being darker than others. You can of course use a paint brush and paint it the normal way if you’d like.

Paint the Flowers as Accents

This part is optional, but I really like the way the sign looks with the flowers painted. Use a regular paint brush for this. Paint the flowers with whatever accent color you choose. I used aqua because that’s the colors I used in my early fall decor. (Again, I used copper on the second faux tile pumpkin and it looks great!)

Painting the flowers on the faux tile aqua on the fall pumpkin sign.

As you go through painting the flowers, don’t worry too much about being perfect on every one. On some of mine I even did just a few brush strokes, one on each side and one in the middle. Only paint the flowers, not the stems, leaves or borders. That is just way too much of an “accent” color.

Some of the flowers on the faux tils painted aqua. — This color looks more blue than it is. It’s a true aqua.

Paint the Metal Word

The words come in a three pack from Dollar Tree. “Harvest,” “welcome,” and “thankful” come in the pack. For this sign I used “harvest.” If you want to leave the word as is, that’s fine. However, I wanted more aqua in the sign, so I painted the word. You can use your accent color paint or even throw in a third color. When I made my second fall pumpkin sign I painted “thankful” in English navy.

In this picture you can see the aqua paint color a little better, but it is just slightly different than this.

Once the word is dry, glue it to the sign. Before you add the glue to the back of the word, take a look at the faux tile on the sign and where you want to place the word. Since the tile is not a flat surface, the glue will need to be placed on the word where it will hit the higher places. Since the word is cursive, it’s hard to squeeze the hot glue across the entire word and to do it before the glue dries. I made sure to squeeze the glue on the ends of my word. In doing that, I was able to get enough glue on it to hold and get it on the tile before the glue was dry.

Create the Stem on the Fall Pumpkin Sign

The final step in upcycling the fall pumpkin sign is adding twine and faux greenery. Add a bit of hot glue on the back of the sign at the base of the stem. It’s easy to know where to put it because the back is actually the original front. Place the end of the twine on the glue and wrap it around the stem several times. Add the greenery or flower on the side of the stem then continue wrapping the twine around it to hold it on. If you don’t have a long enough stem on the greenery, you can hot glue it to the pumpkin then wrap the twine around it. If needed retie the raffia bow and hot glue it to the middle of the stem.

Again- the accent paint is not this regular blue. I don’t know why it shows up like this.

I really love the look of the stem area. It makes it look like decor that you actually want to put out in your home.

The fall pumpkin sign is ready to be put in its place of honor!

I love the way this sign turned out! I can’t wait to finish my other sign. It will be burgundy, copper, and navy, and I really like the way it’s going so far! I will update this post as soon as I have pictures of it. I will also add pictures of my fall coffee bar vignette as soon as it’s ready. Hate to repeat it, but- the word and flowers look blue in the pictures, but they’re not! It drives me insane. If I can get a picture that show the actual colors, I’ll add them.

Update: I finished my burgundy, navy, and copper faux tile pumpkin! It’s pictured below, and, again, for some reason it looks purple once it’s uploaded. The piece of greenery I used was from a faux greenery bunch from Dollar Tree. I painted it English navy along with the metal “Thankful.”

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Chunky Yarn Pumpkin Wreath