Last week I went to the craft store for a couple of those real-looking, styrofoam/carvable pumpkins to draw henna patterns on when I came across these fantastic dried gourds. They came stained in brown, green and gold. I bought two different sizes in brown, a metalic copper paint marker and copper dimensional fabric paint.

Yesterday evening, with the larger gourd and my henna reference books (you can google or bing for many great patterns as well,) I sat on the porch and doodled away to the sound of crows settling in for the night into the eucalyptus trees that line our driveway.The gourd was so smooth and dry that I had to put on a rubber glove just to keep a grip on it.
I’m not sure just yet how or where I will display this henna gourd, but it sure was fun to create.Henna patterns are extremely easy to do and to apply to so many surfaces other than skin, like THIS.
This morning I brought out the smaller gourd, the dimensional fabric paint and a reference book for a fancy initial. Using chalk, I freehand copied the H then drew over it with the paint.
It was a bit like cake decorating with an icing tube. About an hour later, after the dimesional paint dried in the sun, I wiped off any remaining chalk lines with a wet cotton swab. I added a few viney swirls and filled in areas of the lettering with the metalic paint marker. It’s very imperfect, but after all, it is hand drawn and kind of rustic looking.
Once my little monogrammed gourd was finished, I hot-glued it into my fall door wreath.Now, if only a little fall weather would come around, that would be perfect.

Reference Books I used:

Mehndi Designs by Marty Noble
Akarshak Mehandi Designs
Decorative Alphabets

Thank you for all the wonderful comments on the wreath. However, I did not make it, I purchased it at Costco last year for $22. Flower arranging is something I’ve never been very good at.