By Shirley Bisby: I used an idea that I read somewhere, on a wooden plaque. You crumple tissue paper into a ball, then spread it out & glue it onto the board. Then you put a burnt umber paint wash on it & let it dry & then paint your design. It gives you a background that resembles "old leather".  I bet this same technique would work on a gourd. The problem of course would begetting a good contact with the curved surface of the gourd.  I used Aleene's Tacky Glue all purpose, straight from the bottle without diluting. It is a craft glue that you can buy at Wal-mart.   Says on the bottle that it dries clear & flexible and is designed especially for scrapcraft or gluing odd surfaces. To thin, add water or you can thicken it by freezing it.

By Mona Bayshore:  A couple years ago I saw a crafting show where they did an entire wall of a room this way. But instead of tissue, the paper used was brown paper grocery bags.  They were torn into odd shaped pieces, with all edges torn - not cut. Each piece was crumpled and then slightly straightened before staining (brown) and wiping the surface of the paper. The creases left from crumpling the paper took the stain darker, and so did the torn edges. After staining and drying, the pieces were glued to the wall. It did give the appearance of leather. It might be a nice background for gourd photos.

By Colleen Proffitt:I just now remembered doing a project like this on a bottle. You tore the paper bag randomly...glued the pieces on and then used brown paste shoe polish all over it...then buffing it off. The creases were darker....and it did turn out beautifully. This should be great on a gourd.