More Mod Podge this time...Gourds and Tray

Well, I have been sticky fingered here the past few days from Mod Podge.  I hadn't put away my big jug of matte Mod Podge and wanted to try using it on a few other items. I saw on Mod Podge Rocks,  photos of gourds that had leaves and flowers applied with mod podge. So cool. http://www.modpodgerocksblog.com/2009/11/playing-with-decorative-gourds.html
I thought the finished project looked really neat. I didn't have any pressed vibrant colored flowers or leaves to use at this time, as all of my dried flowers that I pressed were a couple years old and the colors weren't vibrant.  So, I decided I would try decoupaging napkins. I had a bunch of gourds that I grew, but unfortunately our growing season here in Massachusetts isn't always long enough to get good sized gourds. We can't plant early enough as we get very late spring frosts. I pulled out my gourds and here is a photo of some of the assortment of the one's I grew. All of the gourds that I have grown have been very thin shelled.  My gourds below.
 
The photo below are gourds that were given to me from a friend that ordered them from a gourd farm. The gourds I was given are heavy shelled and much bigger. They can be cut to use as bowls, bird houses, whatever gourd art strikes your fancy.

In my picture trail (around my yard album) I have photos of my gourds growing. www.picturetrail.com/elaine_akers
This past spring I found 2 gourds that I hadn't found in the fall when my gourds were harvested. They were out all winter, and covered with black areas on them that I couldn't remove after cleaning, scrubbing and sanding. I should have taken a before photo to show just how bad they were.  So, I decided to paint the 2 gourds . The worst one, I painted black, which turned out not to be a good color choice.  The tall gourd I painted copper. I used napkins, but I had to keep going over the same cut out pieces to get a color to show that wasn't muted from the dark paint. I'm not extremely happy with the end results, but they look better now and will just have to do.  For the round, flat gourd originally I used cut out pears and leaves, but they didn't show up because of the black paint. I then cut out colorful leaves from decorative napkins.
  gourd painted black and decoupaged.
copper painted gourd ,back side with pumpkin and crow.
front of gourd with cut out napkins-maple and oak leaves

Yesterday I painted a cheap wooden dollar store tray black. This morning I used a decorative, beverage sized napkin to Mod Podge to the tray. Below is the finished tray. The napkin had 4 images of the loon, but when cut in half it fit the bottom area of the tray really well. I only needed to trim off a little bit.
finished tray and the napkin that I used on my tray.
My next Mod Podge project is going to be using fabric Mod Podge and fabric. I read about that on Mod Podge Rocks too. :-)
And, I found a nice glass bottle with a cork stopper that I want to decorate.
Now, I have a question and I'm hoping someone can give me an answer...what am I doing wrong? I always iron my napkins, separate the napkins down to one layer, cut them out. I put a thin base coat of Mod Podge, and then my napkin or whatever. Let it dry, and then add a top coat, let it dry the recommended time, and repeat. But, my napkins always get wrinkly and bumpy no matter how many times that I smooth them out. When using napkins they are very thin and fragile and tear easily when smoothing any wrinkles out. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
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