With Fall fast approaching, I'm bringing back a popular post from October 2011. My readership has grown quite a bit since then so I thought there may be some of you who haven't seen these cute pumpkins before.
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I made some mod pumpkins for Ms. JB that I'd like to share with you. They were really easy and budget friendly too!
They look really cute with the decor in her house. Here's a view from the back side.
I blame it all on these cute napkins that I fell in love with...and on Ms. JB's love of stripes...and on all of you inspiring, talented people out there in blogland!
Here are most of the supplies that I used. Faux pumpkins, spray primer, ModPodge, a spray mask (but not the proper kind that should really be used), two different patterns of napkins, a ruler, pencil and scissors. I used a couple of other items as I went along that aren't included in this photo, but you'll see them below.
I started off by wrapping the stems of the pumpkins with painter's tape. Then I spray primed the pumpkins so that the orange color wouldn't show through the napkins.
I decided to use the striped napkins on the larger pumpkin. The napkins were three ply thick, so I peeled them apart until I had just one layer. I cut three napkins into strips roughly 1" wide.
You'll have to ignore the surface of my well used work table. I need to recover it. It really isn't dirt that you see. It's just places where adhesives have been used in the making of window treatments, cornices and upholstered headboards.
Next, I applied the strips of napkin to the larger pumpkin with ModPodge.
After letting them dry completely, I added a coat of ModPodge over the applied napkin strips and allowed that to dry completely. This is the completed, striped pumpkin.
It was looking a little neeked, so you can see that I added some leaves, curled ribbon and berries around the stem. I'll go into that process below.
I covered the smaller pumpkin with the leafy napkins using the same process that I described above.
Since these are supposed to be mod pumpkins, I wanted leaves that look a little more mod too! I ModPodged pieces of the striped napkin, the leafy napkin and a solid green napkin (that I already had) to a piece of stiff paper. I borrowed a couple of different faux leaves from my stash and traced around them onto the ModPodged napkins - after they had dried thoroughly.
I then cut the traced around leaves out so they could be glued to the pumpkins. I glued the leafy pattern to the striped pumpkin and the striped pattern to the leafy pumpkin. I also glued a couple of solid green leaves to both pumpkins.
Next I made some curled pieces of ribbon to use. I simply cut some strips of ribbon, slathered them with Stiffy Fabric Stiffener, and wrapped them around a pencil until they were dry. I stuck the pencils down in some floral foam to hold them up while they were drying. You can see I used some painter's tape to hold the ribbon ends on the pencils.
It was easy to remove the ribbon from the pencils once it was dry. This is what I wound up with. I think they make cute little curly cues.
After that I just hot-glued the leaves and ribbons to the pumpkins. I started off by cutting and gluing some pieces of solid green ribbon that I already had. Then I glued the larger green leaves on top of the ribbon and added the smaller patterned leaves on top of those. I cut down the curly cue ribbons to make them the length that I wanted and then glued those to the pumpkins as well. I finished them off by gluing on some berries that I pulled off of some of the picks that were in my stash.
And voila - easy peasy mod pumpkins! Ms. JB was pretty pleased, which makes it all worth it.
You can see my 2011 Fall mantle and other Fall touches in my kitchen and family room here, my living room and foyer here and my outdoor Fall decor here.

