Autumn Bounty Bowl

 

 

Decoupage Autumn Bounty Bowl

Make the most of your Autumn bounty and make a gorgeous display with this dead easy decoupage bowl.

I can spend hours and hours going through gardening seed catalogues. The gorgeous vibrant colours, the anticipation they bring as you look forward to the new season of colour. I hate to throw them away after I have made any selections, so we are always looking for new ways to use them. One creation was a decoupage shoebox for the copious amount of hair bands we seem to collect.

So inspired by the Autumn harvest we looked for something else to decorate. My daughter and I like to craft together, so projects have to be fairly simple, with quick results or attention spans tend to wane. Decoupage is a great kids craft, it fulfils the messy aspect required by children, and getting fairly good results from little skill or from tiny hands means it's a great craft to help build confidence and creativity. To make the Autumnal Bounty Bowl you will need:

1 balloon

Bowl for keeping balloon steady

Watered down PVA

Scissors

Magazines or catalogues

Marker pen

Gold acrylic paint
Paint brush

Instructions

1.Taking a balloon and using the traditional paper Mache technique of laying strips of newspaper

over the upturned balloon (use a bowl to steady it), brush over each strip with PVA glue, I guess you could use the wonderful modge podge for this too, but I had just PVA to hand which I slightly watered down.

2. Once two or three layers of newspaper cover half the balloon, it's time to select the images you want to use.

Single colour themes look really effective but I chose a multi-coloured range of images with different shapes and textures to reflect the colourful bounty of Autumn.

When you have got the coverage you like, leave to dry at least overnight. The more generous you are with PVA the more rigid your bowl will be.

3. Once dry and hardened, pop the balloon and carefully peel it away from the shell of your bowl. My daughter particularly enjoyed this bit. You will need to trim the edge of the bowl to give a pleasing finish.

You could go for a regular straight edge but is actually quite tricky and a shaped edge can look very effective.

4. Using your marker pen draw the shape of your
desired bowl edge. Use sharp scissors cut your bowl edge.

5. Once you are happy with the border of your bowl, paint the inside with a tough acrylic paint and leave to dry.

To give the bowl a glossier finish, give a light coat of spray varnish inside and out and leave to dry thoroughly.

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