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Revamping a thrifted bowl to a candy dish

I have decided to do 13 days of Halloween crafts. This is my day one craft. I made a list of themes for all 13 days which you can view here.

It was just a fun way for me to get some of the Halloween projects I’ve been floating around inside my head done. I thought it could be fun to create a little community with it and have other people create things around the theme as well. I decided to give away a toolbox as a prize to one person after the 13 days. There’s no penalty for doing more than one in each theme category or for not finishing each day on time. It’s just supposed to be fun and encourage people to get out and create some thing spooky for the Halloween season. You can read more about how it will work HERE.

So for day one: Something Thirfted, I went to the thrift store and found this cute little pumpkin.

When I got it I had initially thought I would paint it black. A lot of my Halloween Decor is neutral, blacks, and whites. So when I brought it home and got ready to prep it for spray paint, I noticed that a lot of the orange paint was flaking and chipping off. It looked scratched.

I wondered if maybe some paint stripper or acetone would remove the paint. I had fingernail polish remover on hand, not specifically acetone, and since that is straight acetone, I thought I would try it. Here are the supplies I used:

Materials:

  • Finger nail polish remover
  • cotton balls
  • newspaper to protect the table
  • gloves to protect my hands
  • soap and water to clean up after

Step 1: Prep the area

I laid out some newspaper to protect my table.

Step 2: Remove the paint

Using a cotton swab and some fingernail polish remover. I gently rubbed it onto the orange surface. I was very surprised when it came off after just a couple of swipes.

I began cleaning, and I cleaned the entire pumpkin in just about five minutes. I went through quite a few cotton balls and was glad that I wore gloves as it got a little bit messy.

Step 3: Clean

After I got all of the paint off, I washed it out with soap and water. The whole thing was now white and I decided that I liked the way it looked and I wasn’t going to paint it. I filled it with candy, and it looks great with the rest of my neutral living room decor.

It was one of the easiest and quickest DIY’s in this series, and sometimes it feels good to just create some thing in an afternoon and not have it take several days. My house projects take months, so a quick DIY is always refreshing.

If you want to join up in the 13 day challenge all you have to do is create some thing and use the #13ToDIYFor

I can’t wait to see all of the entries, and there has already been some really fun stuff entered. You can see all of the post so far on my Instagram HERE.

Come back for day two!

-Amanda