DIY Pumpkin Napkin Rings

Around this time of year it’s fun to start making pumpkin everything, including some cute DIY pumpkin napkin rings like these for some super sweet fall place settings.

They’re made from clay, so they’re one of those craft projects that will definitely get you in touch with your inner kindergartener. There are tons of kinds of modeling clay at the craft store, but this was a Sculpy project.

How to Make DIY Pumpkin Napkin Rings

Materials

• Orange modeling clay
• Green modeling clay
• White modeling clay
• E6000 glue

If you have a shade of orange clay that you like, you don’t need to mix the colors to make them lighter. If the orange you find in the store is too bright for your taste, take a little white clay and knead it together with the orange to lighten the color. Do the same with the green clay. 

Make the pumpkins

There are three pumpkins on this fall napkin ring. One large pumpkin in the center, and two small pumpkins on the sides. For the large ball, roll it to about 3/4 of an inch wide.

Roll an additional two balls to about half an inch wide.

Use the tip of a pencil pen or other similarly shaped object to put an indent in the top of the ball. This will make an area for the stem to be placed.

You can use a toothpick or other similarly shaped object to put lines around the edge of the pumpkin. Use 5 to 6 lines per ball. I had a random clip hanging around I used to press the lines into the pumpkin with.

After placing the lines, you may put your fingers on the top and bottom of the ball and squish slightly. This will make the pumpkins on your DIY pumpkin napkin ring appear a tad more squat.

To make the clay pumpkin stem, take a tiny piece of the green clay and roll one end to a narrow point and leave the other end wide. Placed the pointy part into the indentation and press down slightly to get the Sculpy clay to stick together.

If you’d like a curly stem or vine out the top of your pumpkin, take a small piece of green Sculpy and roll it to a thin line. Gently press one end of the clay to the indentation in the pumpkin. Add a little leaf to the end to top it off.

Cookie cutter leaves

The leaves fore the DIY pumpkin napkin ring were made using a great little fondant tool called a plunger cutter.

Ordinarily, you would roll the fondant out and use this press to cut the fondant. You’d then depress the plunger and the fondant would pop out of the cutter. Quite brilliant, as it keeps the fondant sheep much better than ordinary cookie cutters. This particular leaf plunger cutter came in a bag of 33 cutters, many of which had designs imprinted on the plunger to add a little extra detail!

To get the designs to show up on the finished product, It was not as effective to roll out the clay flat and press down as it was to just place the clay in the cutter and then plunge it out. But you do you–you may find one way works better than the other for you.

Shape the leaf to make a wave with a pointy tip on one end, and a slightly flattened and on the other. Slightly flattened edge will give the pumpkin place to rest, and a place to put the glue to attach to The napkin ring.

The Napkin Ring Loop

You can either find a pre-made ring to put your pumpkins on, or you can make one from Sculpy or other modeling clay. A quarter of one of the packaged blocks is about right for making one napkin ring. Pinch the clay quarter to flatten block into a long strip.

Wrap the strip around a spice bottle or a similarly shaped cylinder to get a nice ring shape. Seal the ends shut and place on a silpat on a metal cookie sheet.

Follow the directions on your clay package for baking your clay. If you are using Sculpy clay, the directions say to bake at 275° for 15 minutes. For the thickness of the clay we are using here, that is plenty of time to harden the clay.

If you don’t have a silpat for clay baking, a sheet of aluminum foil will do on your metal cookie sheet.

Assembling the DIY Pumpkin Napkin Ring

E6000 glue was a good choice to place pumpkins and leaves onto the napkin ring. It’s just tacky enough that your objects won’t move when you place them and it doesn’t dry so quickly you can’t move the pieces around a bit if necessary.

Start by gluing on one of the green leaves. After the leaf is placed, put a small pumpkin in the indentation, then the middle pumpkin, then the right leaf and right pumpkin on around the napkin ring.

These pumpkin napkin rings seriously cute, but they are a tad fragile. So be gentle with them in their use!