Sometimes I make things and wonder why. Like paper pumpkins for example, because let's face it, a paper pumpkin is pretty useless really. However, I had the notion of making one because I wanted to add a touch of autumn to my kitchen (am fed up of summer now). It's too early for pumpkins to appear in the supermarkets, and with our totally bonkers weather, my pumpkin plants have failed to produce anything larger than a ping pong ball.
So I thought I'd just make one. As you do.
We all know the basics of Papier-mâché (which from now on I will call paper mache as I'm too lazy to write it properly). Blow up a ballon and cover with layers of paper. To make it easy I kept the ballons fairly small so it wouldn't take too long to cover with paper. I use newspaper and then finish off with white paper. Even though I knew it was going to have a layer of padding, it's a habit I have got into when doing any paper mache task. If you use nothing but newspaper and then try to paint over it, the print always shows through. Using a plain white paper stops that problem.
Segments were needed to give a pumpkiny shape. I pulled string tightly around the balloon and tied on the top. This was done three times.
To give a really good shape, I took cotton wool balls and unrolled them, then glued between the string lines, making sure there was a gap so there would be a definite dip between segments.
Gorgeous Girl sat with me at the kitchen table, we both worked on our own pumpkins. I helped her out when needed, and told her what to do, but she did pretty much all of it herself.
While I unravelled the cotton wool balls, she just glued them on whole so her ballooon looked like it had a full head of hair curlers in.
And you know what? Hers had the best shape. You can learn so much from children. I was trying to be all clever and trying to recreate the shape how I thought it should be, but I was trying too hard. Should have just copied my little lady.
Anyway. Once they are covered in cotton wool, tear tissue paper and dip in a watery glue of pva and water. Slap the tissue carefully over the cotton wool (it will rip and tear, but it doesn't matter). Then leave it to dry for a while.
To make the stems I took the cardboard roll from an empty roll of foil and cut down. 
Then they were covered with glue and brown velvet ribbon, ready to be glued in place once the pumpkins had been painted.
I wanted a pale pumpkin, so mine was painted in Farrow & Ball's 'Mizzle'. 
The Little Lady painted hers pink and finished off with a dredging of pink glitter. 
I think I have a 'Blue Peter' presenter of the future on my hands! She has since painted a little smiley face on it, but I've yet to take a photo. It looks so sweet.
So there you have it. How to make paper pumpkins. Might be pointless, but they are good fun to make.
