I decided to temporarily replace a five-year old photo of my grandkids with a mixed media piece of a fall pumpkin. The grandkids have grown so much, but I can’t say my art skills have!  I started with a 11×17″ sheet of mixed media paper, some ecru tissue paper, and scraps of other tan-colored papers.  I ModPodged these down to form a random brownish background for my pumpkin.

I then added some details to the background using stamps and black ink (though I neglected to take a picture of this).

My next step was to sketch a pumpkin onto another sheet of paper.

I cut it into sections and used these sections as templates to reproduce the shapes on orange and patterned scrapbook paper.

I decided the center piece was too white, so I scribbled on some orange Distress Crayon and smeared it all over with a baby wipe.

To add some depth to the pumpkin sections, I used a brown Distress Crayon to edge each piece and smear the crayon marks with another baby wipe.

Now that the pumpkin part was finalized, I prepared it for ModPodging onto the background sheet.

Now came the hard part. I played and played with green stems and leaves to get them just right.

I continued to add leaves and tweak their appearance until I was happy with the effect. I added some depth to both the leaves and the stem with brown and green Distress Crayons, a white GelliRoll pen, and a black Posca pen.

I added a few more stamped images, framed it, and have it proudly displayed in a place of honor in my living room. I’m already working on the Christmas picture that will replace it!