A few nights before Halloween I decided to attempt to make my own book paper pumpkin. I do not think it is too late to share this, although some of us are already thinking about December, we are still in Fall.
There have been many versions of this pumpkin but I first came across these on EAK! a House! and Craftberry Bush. This was too cute a project to pass up. I used a reasonably old (but not antique) book. I found this image online and decided to use it to carve out the outline on a piece of cardboard for a template.
I used part of a box headed for recyling to cut out the template of just one half of the pumpkin.
I removed the cover and spine and placed the template on the first page of the book ....and proceeded to cut into the book taking a few pages at a time.
I must have been tired that evening as I did not realize until I was halfway into the book that it had 480 pages! I could have picked something smaller but it was too late to quit.
I used a pair of scissors. An exacto knife is another option. Once I reached the end I proceeded to cut along the bottom to get a better shape. This is not a "perfect" pumpkin and it was not intended to be.
I used a brewed teabag to antique the pages a little..I could not do all 480 pages but attempted some!
I had a branch of an indoor plant that was dying and so I cut it to use as the stalk. I placed it within the spine and then proceeded to hot-glue it and used a baggie clip - these are always so handy - to hold it in place while the glue dried. I let it sit all night to allow it to adhere to the book.
The next morning I decided to cover the stalk with some hemp I had on hand to make it look more substantial.
I started at the top of the stalk....
...then realized I had left an offshoot to cover too.
So I undid it and started hot-glueing the smaller branch first. In order to cover the tip I glued a piece upward (see arrow) and at the tip proceeded to wrap around while glueing and working down the branch.
I held the twine in place with a baggie clip while the glue dried.
Then I started at the top of the main branch again and worked my way down in the same way.
I covered the pumpkin where the stalk meets the pages in order to add some character to the piece and show where the stalk "grows out". I went around in circles a few times and glued as I went along.
Yes, there is a gap, but that is ok.
Lastly, I decided to add a piece to the base and formed a circle with some hemp and hot-glued that to the base. (You might see a glimpse of strings of glue here and there but I removed them once the glue had dried).
Here is the final piece. I am not sure if the stalk is too large...my experience with pumpkins is limited (I did not grow up being familiar with them..different countries, etc).
I looked at other pics online and found this..
and this..
via Google images
So I think I am ok with this one - my rough-around-the-edges book pumpkin.
What do you think? Do you think I should make the stalk shorter? This is easily remedied. For next year I might add some more tea to the pages for a little more color variation. This is such a fun project but I would recommend using a book with fewer pages. I think mine will suffice for this Fall season.
I am linking this mini project up to Home Stories A to Z
and Someday Crafts
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Lisa
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