Paper Mache Pumpkin

What I've made, and will be explaining to you how to create, is a paper mache pumpkin. I hope it will teach you something new and help you to create this classic Halloween decoration.

This project typically takes several days to complete.

You will need various supplies for this project:

1. Cardboard
2. Hot glue gun or superglue
3. Glue
4. Water
5. Masking tape
6. Pencil
7. Scissors
8. Scrap paper
9. Paint (preferably orange, green, and black, but you can choose whatever colors you would like).
10. Paper bags (or paper)
11. Bowl
12. Paintbrushes

Take your glue (it will work best with school glue or white glue), a bowl, and some water. Take the bowl and pour a good amount of glue into it. Next, take your water and pour it on top of the glue. Mix until the water and glue are fully mixed. Now you have the key solution to making paper mache.

Place that to the side.

Grab your paper bag or paper (you can also use aluminium foil for this step if you want it to be sturdier), and make a ball. Make it whatever size you want your pumpkin to be. Try to make the bottom of the ball flatter so it can sit well on display.

Again, take your paper (or aluminium), but this time use a lot less and make a cylinder (or just try to make it look like a pumpkin stem).

If you used aluminium foil, you can skip this step because your finished product will be sturdy without it.

This step will help your pumpkin be sturdy and keep its shape.

Take your cardboard and scissors. Cut the cardboard into sections, about six (this will change depending on what size your pumpkin is).

Bend these sections till they are flexible.

Now, take your masking tape and secure those sections we just cut around the ball.

After securing your sections, put the masking tape all around the pumpkin base to prepare it for the paper mache. Also, put the masking tape all around the cylinder.

Take your scrap paper or whatever paper you have and rip it up into smaller pieces. Take the water-to-glue mixture you should've made before and submerge one of your ripped-up paper pieces into it. Put the submerged piece onto your pumpkin base and smooth it out. Continue to do this until both the pumpkin base and stem are covered. It's good if you do a couple of layers, like I ended up doing.

Smooth out the paper mache some, then leave it to dry.

------------------------------------------------------------------

This should take around 24 to 48 hours to dry.

Maybe you could spend the time you are waiting for your paper mache to dry thinking about how you want to paint it.

After your project is fully dry, you are now able to paint your pumpkin. You can paint it anyway you like: A classic jack o' lantern, a colorful pumpkin, a scary pumpkin, etc.

I'm going to be using the basic pumpkin colors: orange, green, and black in this tutorial.

First, I'm covering the whole pumpkin in orange, then leaving it to dry. Then I add a second layer of orange to cover any colors peeking through from the paper

After painting the base, you can now paint the stem. I'm using green. One layer should be enough, because the dark green already covers most colors.

Lastly, you can add details to make your pumpkin more realistic, decorate it like a jack o' lantern, or both! Decorate it however you would like. You could use a pencil to draw the design you want to do first.

If you want your finished product to be shiny, you can also apply Mod Podge on top of the dry paint, which is what I did. I put a toilet paper roll under the pumpkin while drying to keep the bottom from getting stuck to the floor.

Grab your hot glue gun. Or any glue you have, really, and glue the stem to the top of your pumpkin.

If you didn't use hot glue, leave it to dry.

I decided to use superglue to make it stick stronger.

Time to admire your newly finished project. Maybe you can put it on your shelf, your windowsill, or make 20 more!

If you want to do a different project, a lot of these steps will work for similar paper mache projects. So you can let your imagination run wild and make whatever your heart desires!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read/do my Instructable!