Melinda Ward
My husband and I volunteered to host Thanksgiving this year. We’re both excited to be able to show off our new house and to cook a delicious meal!
However, at some point in the last week I noticed (subconsciously remembered?) this:
Wop wop. That’s not very festive!!
Although I recently purchased some Halloween decorations, a faux jack-o-lantern won’t exactly fit the thankful atmosphere. (And it scares my dog when it’s inside the house.)
“No problem!” I told myself, “There were loads of faux white pumpkins when I bought my jack-o-lanterns.”
Prematurely victorious, I journeyed back to the store to find no pumpkins at all. Not even a broken one on clearance.
So, like an adventurous little paper crafter, I Googled “paper pumpkins” and found a few tutorials on how to make these.
It’s really pretty easy! Just cut strips of cardstock and poke a brad through the middle of all of the strips. Then arrange the strips so that they form a circle, with the brad in the middle. Fold the brad down. Curl the cardstock up and adhere the ends of the strips together at the top! (For the larger pumpkin, simply adhere two strips together and do the same thing with your now longer strips!) Then you can cut out a piece of brown cardstock to roll up as the stem, and cut out leaves from green cardstock. I used a die-cutting machine for my leaves, but you can hand cut yours. Also, use some scissors to curl some green paper for the pumpkin vines for that extra detail.
Much better, don’t you think?
What about you? Are you hosting Thanksgiving dinner at your house? Do you have any fun decorations for the occasion?
Have a great day!
Very cute! I have made those as well. I need to get out some of my decorations. With a 24 and 28 year old decorating is not as much fun! Plus one of them won’t even be home until Christmas.
Your table looks great! I made 3 sizes of paper pumpkins in orange, tan and yellow for my entry table. I put colored leaves down, as a base, and then put the pumpkins down. In the background I put a framed Thanksgiving quote. My kitchen has a banner for autumn and a framed subway Thanksgiving art. Paper decor is fun – maybe you should do a bookazine with seasonal decorating ideas??? : )
Resourceful girl….these are darling. I am hosting…18 of us this year! Yikes! I have a fall leaves garland to go down the center of the food table. With so many of us, I have to break out the folding banquet tables to use in lieu of dining tables. I try to decorate there as well, but with so many of us….I do have a big ceramic turkey and some pretty velvet pumpkins, so maybe it will be ok after all. Enjoy your Thanksgiving!
This is so cute! I love the pumpkins. I have hosted before~but this year we go to my in-laws. Thanks for sharing~
These are so clever. I had a white ceramic pumpkin but alas, I broke it and maybe I’ll make some of these. Very clever!
Very nice touch. Maybe this is something I’ll attempt with my 5-year old niece when we go visit for Thanksgiving. We’re doing an all-new Thanksgiving thing this year. We’re having lasagna! My brother and s-i-l both work in retail and will be busy, busy, busy up to and after Thanksgiving. It’s not worth the hassle to make and serve a huge meal when they only have the one day off. It’s not what we eat, it’s who we spend the day with, so we’re all looking forward to starting a new tradition. I had my niece help make paper garlands for their Christmas tree last year, so making a paper pumpkin will be a good way to carry on that tradition.
Huge transformation in such a little way. Love them
Looks really cool!
Love these paper pumpkins. Hope you have a wonderful time hosting Thanksgiving for your family. We had ours last month in Canada!
Great pumpkins!! I hosted my first and final Thanksgiving a couple years ago. I could not believe how much work went into hosting dinner!! I think I got about 3 hours of sleep the night before. So….I will leave it to the pro….my Mom. LOL!! I do decorate for every holiday though. I have a gorgeous set of ceramic pumpkins/squash that I like to display on my table.
i made a beautiful paper leaves garland. I love how it looks in my dining room.
Very cute ~ Happy Thanksgiving!