Decoupage Pumpkins Tutorial

Happy October everybody!  Lots of stuff going on in our casa so things have been a little hectic.  I promised you a quick decoupage tutorial, so here it is:

Materials:

pumpkin (real or fake)

mod podge (matte finish)

decorative paper

scissors

foam brush

1.) gather your materials ( I used real pie pumpkins since I plan on tossing them out)

2.)  pick out paper that fits your theme or color scheme and buy enough to cover your pumpkin.  I used scrapbook paper, which was a little thick and more difficult to work with, but found the prints I wanted.  (2 pieces of scrapbook paper were just enough to cover each of these small pie pumpkins)

3.)  cut your paper into 1/2-1" strips.

4.) cut small slits into the top of each paper strip so that you can paste them as close to the stalk as possible

5.)  using your foam brush, apply mod podge to the first section of the pumpkin, then lay your strip down

6.) once the strip is attached, cover it with another layer of mod podge, smoothing it down with your thumb as you go

7.)  repeat this process until the entire pumpkin is covered.

(yup, I totally borrowed Eva's princess place mat.  That's how I roll.)

8.)  go back and smooth out any bumpy areas with your thumb.

Here is the finished result:

The Toile and Chair prints are on one side.

The gray polka-dotted pumpkin is on the other.

The great thing about this project is that it allows you to keep the pumpkin-Fall look while changing it to suit your color scheme.  Printed paper also adds interest since pumpkins can be bland and boring if left plain.  

Just FYI, this can be a little time consuming and decoupaging a round object isn't all that easy.  I'm not sure if there's a better way to avoid bumps in the paper, but I found that cutting tiny slits up and down both sides of each strip helped the paper smooth down a little better:

This idea isn't original at all.   Several people have done tutorials on it in the past.  The first time I saw decoupaged pumpkins was in last year's Country Living magazine.  Here's the eye candy from the magazine:

source

Aren't they just beautiful?   

There are several ways to decoupage pumpkins.  Debbie over at Confessions of a Plate Addict demonstrated how much easier it is to use a white pumpkin and small design to achieve a beautiful result:

source

I highly recommend that you go check out her designs.  They turned out so pretty!  

So there you have it folks, a super easy tutorial.  Hope you're feeling inspired!