AUTUMN: Book Pumpkins with Paper Bag Stems

Continuing with my bookish inspiration this autumn, I made two pumpkins using paperback books...

I know making things using folded books & magazines is a craft that has been around for a long time - my Mom was making angels, trees, and Santas using magazines back in the 60's, and she and I made a few for our holiday decor back in 2016. They are an easy and cheap way to make pumpkins, too, and with the plethora of books in my garage, I figured I'd revisit the past a bit - simply because it fits my current theme! 

You'll find a basic 'book pumpkin' tutorial AND a quick paper bag pumpkin stem tutorial in this post. Continue reading for more... 

DWK
Book Pumpkin Tutorial

Materials:

Paperback books - I used one trade paperback 'pocket size' book and one larger 'mass market trade paperback' size so I could have two differently shaped pumpkins. After finishing the project, I decided that I should have used TWO of the larger size books to make the larger pumpkin look fuller - you may want to remedy my mistake.

SHARP Scissors . Paper clips . A few heavy books as weights
One piece of thin cardboard to cut the patterns from.

Method:


1. I tore the thin cardboard cover off of a sketchpad to use for the pattern pieces... laying the cardboard onto the book, I traced the page size then cut it out with rounded corners. One half of the cardboard was cut to size for the larger book, the other half for the smaller book - and with a more pronounced roundness. 

2. - 3. Lay your book on a flat surface, open the front cover,  and lay the pattern on top of the first page with the straight edge of the pattern at the spine of the book. Grab about six pages behind the pattern, lift them up, and cut along the curved edge of the pattern right through all of the pages. 

4. Continue working through the book, cutting @ six pages at a time.

5. When the pages are all cut, use the pattern to cut both book covers. 

6. - 7. Bend your book in half from the center, so that the covers touch. Lay it flat and place several heavy books on top to hold the fold in place for 10 minutes or so. Then open your book to the center, lay it flat, and replace the books to hold the pages open. This helps the pages separate more evenly in the final step...

8. Stand your book up on its bottom edge with the page edge in front of you. I forgot to snap a photo of this next step: Grab the two covers and bend them backward toward each other, and secure them with paper clips along the long edge. This forms the back of the pumpkin and won't be seen. Begin at the back of the book separating the pages apart in groups of four or five, and pressing along the spine edge to fold them backward toward the covers. Place a small paper clip along the bottom edge of each group of pages to hold them together if needed. I didn't need to do that, but it's a handy tip!

Paper Bag Pumpkin Stem Tutorial

Materials:

Paper bags - I used a small sized gift bag (@8" tall) and made 2 stems plus used the handles as 'vines'. A larger bag would give you enough material for more stems.

Bowl of water to soak the paper strips in
Vinyl placemat to protect your work surface
Towel to wipe up any water drips
Large clothespins or binder clips - to help hold the twisted paper in place as it dries.

Method:

When I made a large paper bag stem for my Bookish pumpkin (linked below), I just twisted the dry bag into shape. For this project, I wet the bag first, twisted it, and let it dry. That resulted in a stem that was much firmer, which should last longer. So here's how I did that: 

1.  Tear the paper bag sides into long strips (they don't have to be evenly sized). Place them in a bowl of warm water for @ 4 minutes to soften them, then remove and place on the towel to soak up extra water.

2. - 3. Grab a few strips and lay them on top of one another, then begin twisting them together at one corner... as you go, twist harder to form a smaller end of the stem. 

Use a large clothespin or binder clip to hold the smaller twisted end together, and another to hold the larger stem end flat. As the paper dries, remove the clip on the larger and open up the bottom of the stem so it is hollow... that will make adding it to a pumpkin easier.

Optional:
4. Cut twine handles off of a small gift bag, wet them in the water, then roll them into small curls. Use a small clothespin or binder clip to hold the curl in place while the twine dries.

5. I made one stem larger than the other to fit the pumpkin sizes better, and one curly vine for each.

Add the stems to the book pumpkins:

Use a chopstick wood/bamboo skewer as a support for the paper stem by inserting it into the stem, then into the hole in the center of the book pumpkin - right where the covers fold together. After the stem is in place, simply curl the twine 'vine' around the base of the stem.

I've added in a few leaves, cut from painted book pages, to add some color and interest to the pumpkins. I just tucked them into the pages to hold them in place.

Then I added some orange-covered books as risers, and brought in the large paper bag stem made for my Bookish pumpkin (linked below) to give the vignette more presence. 

You can also make shapes using books by folding the pages, rather than cutting them... look online for those tutorials!

Coming up in next week's post, I'm sharing a NON-bookish project... a new version of a previous Original Sweet Sweater creation that is making me smile. I can't wait for you to see him!!! 

Related Content:


Bookish Pumpkin


Paper Bag Pumpkin Stems 

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