Perhaps you’ve seen elegant pumpkins featuring chinoiserie designs on Pinterest. One of these inspired this chinoiserie pumpkin. Here’s how I created this glam pumpkin.

Elegant Chinoiserie Pumpkin

Cover Pumpkins with Decoupage Napkins

Supplies:

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• Paper mache pumpkin
• Decorative napkins
• Scissors
• Tacky Glue
• Matte Mod Podge
• 1/2-inch Flat Paintbrush
• Paper Clay
• Baroque Silicone Mold

Directions:

I didn’t apply a white undercoat to the pumpkin. The white undercoat would brighten the napkin’s background, but I want an aged look.

Attaching the First Napkin to the Pumpkin

First, remove the napkin’s backing layers. Sometimes, it can be difficult to separate the layers. Use a piece of Scotch tape to grab the backing and pull it away.

Peel off the napkin liners.

Lay the napkin over the pumpkin section and press down into the gore.

Decide where to place the design when attaching the napkin to the pumpkin.  Lay the napkin over the raised area between two ribs, the vertical lines running down the pumpkin.  Make sure the napkin covers both ribs.  Then, paint a little Mod Podge onto the top of the raised area underneath the napkin.  Press and smooth the napkin onto the glue.

Cut a small section of the napkin down the center of the two ribs, and away from the pumpkin.  Slice into the side of the napkin to follow the pumpkin curve.  Where possible, cut along a design element.

Cut down the center of one indentation.

Flip the napkin up and paint glue onto the raised center area.

Flip the bottom of the napkin upward and paint Mod Podge under the raised center area of the pumpkin section.  Once the center is secured, cut another edge section and glue it in place.

Attaching the Second Section of the Pumpkin

Fold the excess napkin along the center of the indentation.

Cut the napkin leaving a uniform edge.

As you did with the first section, attach the top of the napkin to the top of the second pumpkin section.  Then, fold the excess napkin on the left edge, overlapping the first.  Cut away the excess napkin to leave a uniform edge.  (I like the idea of folding the edge over cutting the edge.  It’s your call, if you want to, or not.)  

You don’t have to do this in one fell swoop.  To make it easier, I did it in sections.  Cut into the fold.  The cut sections can overlap.

Fold under along the crease.

Lay the folded edge on top of the glue.

Napkin with Large Center Design

If you have a large decoration in the center of all four napkin quarters, you’ll need to use a different technique.  You’ll need a little pre-planning before gluing.

Cut out a quarter of the napkin.

Leave some of the white background.

First, cut out one section of the napkin.  Decide which corner of the square you want to face upward.  Then, cut around the lower edge of the design.  Glue the top of the first napkin in place, leaving the majority of the napkin loose.  Plan how to add the large graphic below the top napkin.  Cut away the white background as needed.

Leave some of the white background.

Before gluing the top, plan how to add the large graphic.

If there are uncovered areas, cut a section from the leftover napkin to cover them. Be strategic when layering and gluing the cut-out pieces over the napkin pattern.

Cut out elements to cover any area you need to cover.

Be strategic about gluing the cutout sections over the napkin pattern.

Pumpkin Stem

Use paper clay to fashion a pumpkin stem.  Flatten the clay and wrap it around the stem.  Then, add angled pieces at the top of each rib.  Add more clay on top and create a curved stem. 

Wrap the pumpkin stem with paper clay.

Create indented lines to add interest to the stem.

I used dotting tools to create the indented lines in the stem.  Unfortunately, I don’t have clay sculpting tools.

Paint the Stem

Paint a coat of deep blue acrylic paint.

Dry brush white paint grayed down a little with charcoal acrylic paint.

Attaching the Beads

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For this project, I bought beads at Michael’s, but you can find similar beads at Amazon.  These beads were on a 100-inch loop of plastic beading thread.  I imagined I’d just cut the thread, take off a few beads, and tie a knot on the last bead.

Well, that did not work.  As soon as I cut the thread, beads went everywhere.  If you buy the loop at Michael’s, you might want to set it on a tray before cutting.

After retrieving the wild beads, I started by threading a bunch of beads onto off-white upholstery thread.  You don’t need a needle if you use upholstery thread.  It is stiff enough to thread through the bead hole easily.

After you have a good length of beads on the thread, run the end of the string around the last bead. Then thread the string back through the bead and tie a double knot at the base.

Coats Extra Strong Upholstery Thread

String of 6/0 silver tone seed beads

Gluing the Beads

Apply Tacky Glue to the center top of one rib, ensuring it covers the line where the two napkins meet.  Push a couple of inches of beads up to the knotted end bead.  Lay the beads onto the Tacky Glue. See the picture above.  Hold the beads in place until the Tacky Glue takes hold.  It just takes a minute or two.

Repeat on each of the ribs.

Stop the beads at the base of the pumpkin.

Repeat the process until you reach the bottom of the pumpkin.  I didn’t want the pumpkin to be resting on the beads at the bottom.  

We could stop right here, but I want to add molded decorative clay pieces around the stem.  ► Baroque polymer clay mold.  I’ll cover that process in the next post.  So sign up below and be sure to come back to see the finished pumpkin.

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