Book Page Pumpkins

Instead of carving up pumpkins this year consider making this book page pumpkin out of an old book and bring it back year after year.  I like using vintage Reader’s Digest books because I know that they’re readily available at almost any thrift shop.  I’ve amassed a huge collection over the years for crafting purposes. With the beautiful covers, I also enjoy using them to bring in seasonal colors for decorating.

Supplies:

vintage books ( I like to use books where the pages have started to fade and yellow with age)

craft knife

scissors

paper template

pencil

glue gun and glue

ribbon or twine

orange spray paint

Directions:

1.) Using your craft knife, remove the cover from the rest of the book .  Save the cover for future projects (like this great sewing box).

2.) Make a template in the shape of a half pumpkin (basically the shape of the upper case “D”).

3.) Place the “D” template with the straight line up to the binding of the book.  Trace and cut out five pages at a time.  Each time, cut slightly inside your tracing mark.  Hopefully, this will keep your pages more uniform.

4.) Cut off any leftover binding and save for your “stem”.

5.) Open up your pumpkin and glue the front page to the back page by running hot glue in a straight line closest to the binding.

6.) Lightly spray paint the pumpkin orange.

7.) For the stem, I simply rolled up the leftover inside binding and glued it to the top of the pumpkin using my glue gun. Tie the stem with the ribbon or twine of your choice.  I like to use left over burlap strings.

For additional pictures and directions visit www.creationsbykara.com.

Happy Halloween!