How To Make A Pumpkin Wreath No One Will Forget

Finishing The Pumpkin Wreath

Finishing the pumpkin wreath will go more quickly than preparing the pumpkin and the arms. Those took a little time, but we are there now! Thankfully, it will be ready before Halloween!

The arms, shoulders, and hands need to be completely wrapped in paper strips. The Papier mâché glue is applied with a paintbrush just like before. Then, the piece is allowed to dry. Some heavier paper was used at the elbows and the shoulders, and a little extra bulk was added, too.

How To Make A Pumpkin Wreath No One Will Forget — Adding paper mache to the hands and arms.

I wanted the hands and arms to look skinny and some of the lines from the cable to be accentuated in the hands. When the paper was applied there, I took care to press it down alongside the cable.

Drying time is all relative to humidity and sunshine. One day, I put one of the pumpkin heads on the table on the patio, the sun was shining brightly, and there was no humidity. That one was almost dry by the end of the day! If you remember the first pumpkin I made, it took days! Looking back, it was the weather that slowed the process.

After the piece was dry, clay was applied over the paper strips. Since I was doing this on a flat surface, only one side could be worked on at a time. You can see in the picture that balls of clay were applied where the knuckles should be. Then, the clay was pressed around the edges and gently blended into the base coat of clay. It’s beginning to look like a creepy hand now, right?

One side of the arms, shoulders, and hands was covered in the Papier mâché clay. ◄(You can find the recipe for the paste and clay here.) That was allowed to dry. Then, the other side was covered with clay. The hands had to be done in a few settings and allowed to dry between settings because of how close the fingers were to each other. It was much easier to allow the fingers to dry and then apply clay to the one right next to it.

Paint the Pumpkin

After the entire piece was covered in the clay and allowed to dry, Valspar Black 60074 – Flat paint, was painted over one side. The paint was allowed to dry and then, the other side got a coat of the paint.

Some of the Kilz primer is dry brushed over the top of the arms and hands. Then, I mix a little black acrylic craft paint into some white acrylic craft paint to create a light gray paint and dry brush it over the areas where the primer is. The dry brushing just brings out more of the knuckle detail and the texture of the clay.

Attaching The Elements to The Picture Frame

The pumpkin has to be attached to the wreath in some way. I decide to use a fishing line. That means it has to be threaded through the pumpkin somehow.

Use a small drill bit, to drill two holes in the back of the pumpkin toward the top. These are barely visible, but the fishing line is easy to thread through one of the holes.

In order to take less tension or stress off of the points where the fishing line went through the pumpkin, use a sleeve from a mechanical pencil to absorb some of that. Thread the fishing line through the hole drilled in the back of the pumpkin, through the sleeve, and out the other hole. That should spread the stress across the back of the pumpkin instead of on two little spots.

Going in is easy. Bringing the line back out from the inside is not. I ended up threading the line through a needle and using it to pull the thread through. That works nicely.

This is the backside of the frame. You can see the eye screws are attached to the frame on the indentation where the glass and picture would normally be placed. A small hole is drilled before screwing each of the eye screws into the wood. It makes it much easier.

Felt pads are also glued on the back of the frame so the front door will not be scratched up by the frame. It probably cuts down on the noise of it banging against the door, too. The zip ties are threaded through the eye screws and around each of the arms, securing them to the frame. The shoulder piece is also zip-tied securely.

How To Make A Pumpkin Wreath No One Will Forget - part 3 — Use zip ties

I left the ends sticking out in this picture so you could see where they were placed. Then, using the fishing line threaded through the pumpkin head, the line was tied onto the two eye screws at the top of the frame. (I used a double piece of line to thread through the pumpkin. It will hold more weight and is much easier to tie.)

The Sign for the Pumpkin Wreath

Using PicMonkey Editor, the sign is created. The background is first created using the papyrus option under textures. The typeface is ‘Face Your Fears’. On top of that, I use an overlay from the Vampires theme, the one with the tombstones. The fade increased a bit until the words showed up well, but the tombstones are still recognizable.

DIY Paper Mache Pumpkin Wreath — Cut around the sign

Happy with the results, the sign is printed on regular copy paper. The paper is then attached to a black foam core poster board, which has been picked up at the dollar store. Using an X-Acto knife, the paper and the foam core are cut neatly. The white inner core of the blackboard shows on the edges and a black marker is used to cover it on all four sides.

After the pumpkin head is tied onto the frame, I pick up the black thorny branches used on the skeleton wreath. It just seems something is missing at the top of the frame and the branches just seem perfect. Three of the branches are hot glued together toward the base of the branches. A fishing line is used to tie them to the frame and a little hot glue for extra support. The dried leaves get a couple of coats of Mod Podge and are strategically placed to hide the fishing line.

Happy With the Results!

The process of “How to Make a Pumpkin Wreath No One Will Forget” has taken some time but I am so excited to see how people respond! Finishing the pumpkin wreath – part 3, hope you have enjoyed this and hope it inspires you to create your own!

Papier-mâché Pumpkin Wreath

Photo Credit: myhumblehomeandgarden.com

Part 1

How To Make A Pumpkin Wreath – Part 2 – Arms, Hands, and Shoulders

Photo Credit: myhumblehomeandgarden.com

Part 2