Paperback Pumpkin

By General Crafts Contributor Michelle

Put a literary twist on your fall decorating by making this cute pumpkin out of a paperback book.

Here’s what you’ll need to make your own:

A Paperback Book.
X-Acto #1 Precision Knife.
Pencil.
Sheet of Paper.
Orange Marker.
Hot Glue Gun and Gluesticks.
A Small Stick.
Green Patterned Scrapbook Paper.
Panacea Cloth Stem Wire 18 in. 16-Gauge 8 pc. Green.
Elmer’s School Glue.
Scissors.
Cutting mat.

To begin, fold your sheet of paper in half. On the fold, draw half a pumpkin shape, keeping the bottom of it fairly flat, so your pumpkin will not roll around. Remember, your half-pumpkin shape needs to fit the size of the paperback book you’ve chosen, so draw accordingly. Cut out your shape, and open it up.

Carefully cut away the cover and back of the book, leaving the spine in tact. Open your book to about halfway. Lay your paper pumpkin template down inside the book, so the fold is in the crease of the book. Use your pencil to trace the pumpkin shape onto both halves of the book.

Use your X-Acto knife to begin cutting through the layers of pages on one side of your pumpkin shape at a time. Cut a few layers, carefully remove the excess paper, then hold the cut pages back down and use them to trace your knife around as you keep cutting layers.

Repeat this process on both sides of the book, until you’ve cut through the entire book.

Use your orange marker to color the edge of your pumpkin book.

Fold the spine of the book in half, backwards, so the pages fan out. Use your hot glue to adhere the spine to itself, all but an inch from the top. Keep the top inch glue free so you can insert your stem. Hold until it’s cool.

Insert your small stick into the center of the pumpkin, glue to hold.

Fold your green paper in half. Cut a leaf pattern from it. Glue the leaves together, patterned sides out, with the wire glued between them in the center, as the vein. Let dry. Use your hot glue to stick end of the wire right up next to the stem. Pinch a couple of the pages together next to the wire as you glue it, to help hold the end in place.