Paper Pumpkins

I first saw the idea for little round Halloween paper-strip ornament balls at Convention 2007, and since I don’t do Halloween, came right home and made them into paper pumpkins. It is super easy and makes a great fall decoration or children’s project. Double-sided paper with orangey tones in it makes the best ones–such as the versatile Haiku papers, Hawaii Papaya, or the lovely new Autumn Vine pattern that you will be seeing shortly in the Holiday Mini Catalog–check your mailboxes! And of course the Patterns DSP in Pumpkin Pie or Tangerine Tango would be the best bet since ALL of the papers are orange in those collections.

To form the largest pumpkin, cut a sheet of DSP into 8×1-inch strips. You can make any size pumpkin by varying the length of the strips, but learn from my experience–if the strips are too long, the pumpkin will sag like a real pumpkin past it’s prime (you know, when you really should have thrown the porch decoration pumpkins out last week but you didn’t and now there’s a pumpkin-guts stain next to your front door?). And likewise, if the strips are too short (trying to make munchkin pumpkins???) then you will need to make the WIDTH of the strips smaller, say half an inch. Trust me.

Hold all the strips together in a stack and punch a hole near both ends through all the layers at once with your Crop A Dile (you can make this project with a regular handheld hole punch, but it will take a lot longer and you will have to line up each individual punch. MUCH more fun with the CAD!)

Still holding the strips together, thread Chocolate Chip wide grosgrain ribbon through one hole and tie a knot. Then, bring the other end of the stacked strips (also punched, remember?), thread it through  and pull until the paper strips are bent in a half-circle. Then tie a knot in to keep it taut.

Fan out the paper strips into the body of the pumpkin (oooh, it’s like magic!) and trim the grosgrain at an angle to both prevent unravelling and look like a pumpkin handle on the top. Make paper leaves out of Wide Oval punches folded in half and run through the crimper. The paper "vine" curls are made by spritzing a slender strip of Garden Green CS with plain water, then winding it around a pencil. Hold it firmly for a few seconds. The water helps break down the bonds of the paper (that’s all the chemistry you’ll ever hear from ME) and it will retain it’s curlique shape after you let it slide off the pencil.

Attach everything with Sticky Strip, because people are going to HANDLE these little cuties and you don’t want them to fall apart. Now wish me luck, because Dan’s first grade class is going to make these at his fall party, of which I am in charge!

There you go–now you have an excuse to buy a Crop A Dile! And I’m closing with a photo of my smallest pumpkin and an example of why your strips need to get thinner the shorter they are. Still, cute!