Gilded pumpkins

We had our annual pumpkin carving party at our house last week for all of our closest friends!

I am not a fan of carving pumpkins. It’s soooooooo messy. So after doing my mom duty…


I was feeling froggy…. and decided some of us mom’s should skip carving pumpkins in lieu of GILDING PUMPKINS!

Here are my friends Laretha and Shauna covering their pumpkins in size. “Size” is just a sticky, watery substance that the leaf adheres to. It’s pretty stinky. Enjoy it.

I used size that I had on hand in the studio. But you could use any water-based size that you have or find it at a paint store or Hobby Lobby. It doesn’t take much.

After an hour or so of getting tacky… we started to apply the leaf. I have tons of leaf on hand left over from projects like this:

( Silver leaf in a designer showroom – pattern done to duplicate a wallpaper)

(Gold leaf with texture over. Done in a masterbath.)

(My very first paying commission EVER! Done for a designer who once decorated Suzanne Somer’s home. For some reason that cracked me up. I imagine Suzanne Somers sitting on her sofa using her thigh machine as this designer arranged her furnishings!)



Ok… so back to the pumpkins…..

Hobby Lobby and Michaels both sell leaf. You can also find it many places in bulk on line.


Each piece is a 5″ x 5″ sheet. We would lay it on the pumpkin and use a brush to “smooch” (the professional term) the leaf around.

Here is my BFF Laura who does NOT have a blog. Everyone say hello to Laura…..


Shauna got crazy and did both silver leaf and gold leaf on her pumpkin together! They turned out so good!

After we covered them in leaf, we used American Walnut Stain and Seal to rub over the pumpkins just to tone the metallic down a little bit. You could use any stain or glaze. The truth is….the pumpkins aren’t gonna last very long. Don’t take tons of time leafing or glazing. Just get it on. It’ll look great!

Here’s the line of them when we were finished.


And the winner of the classical pumpkin carving goes to (drum roll)….. the DeWitt family for their pumpkin girl complete with wig and cell phone.


And the “Gilded Pumpkin Award” has to go to Shauna for this masterpiece.


The lines in the pumpkin were PERFECT for gilding and filling in with stain!

Get some girls together and get to gilding together! It’s a fun time!

Many blessings,
jennifer

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17 comments

  4. They look great! L and Shauna look so serious in that one picture…gilding is obviously tedious work!!

    Glad you guys did the pumpkin party!

    And the wig/cell phone pumpkin is perfect!

  7. I won!!! yahoo!! What a fun time! I am still giggling about your susan summers comment!! What a fun night, I love my pumpkin! This is the only way to decorate pumpkins…that digging the guts thing out in carving makes me ill. Next year I am going to do it to a fake pumpkin so it will last forever.

  8. those turned out so lovely! I started doing them on fake ones this year so that I can save them. Jen, suprised you didnt add polka dots! did you forget?

    those two walls you guilded – funny but i had that Suzanne one saved in a ‘looky loo’ file way back, before I even found your blog! I’m sure I saw it somewhere on faux galleries maybe? That is just the coolest – your silver one too!

  9. I LOVE those pumpkins! Great project. To answer your question, no I’ve never faux painted before. Can you give me more info on it? My email is jmayburton at yahoo (dot) com.

  14. Those gilded pumkins look gorgeous- i especially love the winner- what a great shape it is. Love the winning pumkin “girl” the cell phone makes it!!

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