Last year I saw, in a great magazine, the steps needed to make adorable Christmas trees out of old paperback books. I made about 3 or 4 of them and made sure they were different sizes too! I had such a blast making them and my kids like them too. This year when Fall came around (well, here at least) I found the best idea yet! Pumpkins made out of old paperback books! I just love it when I get to reuse something, or try a new twist on something. This pin made me run to my stack of old books and grab the necessary tools to make one for my fall decor. My oldest son really enjoyed watching me make it. It was pretty funny to hear him say after each piece “ooooh, a little closer mama!”
Easy enough! All you need is a little pumpkin half shaped piece of paper and a craft knife or razor blade. Wanna know why I am showing you scissors? Pay attention to the later photos. Trace your half pumpkin shape on the first and last page of the book.
Cut around 5-8 pages at a time, no more or your edges will be pretty jagged and it won’t look right. Continue cutting until you have the entire book cut out. For referance purposes this book was 278 pages…not that it really matters.
Hot glue the first and last page of the book together, but before you do make sure you break the binding of the book in several places. Doing this will allow the book to fully fan out into a pumpkin shape. Spray paint the book/pumpkin with orange paint. Don’t worry about completely covering every page, it looks really neat if you allow a little different coverage on each page.
Grab a stick from the yard or the tree (if you’re mean) and hot glue it to the top of the pumpkin. Now sit back and think to yourself “that was SUPER easy and gosh darn it, it’s pretty cute too!”
Ooooh one last thing….remember about those scissors? Well after attempting to cut through several pages at a time mine ended up looking like this………….. boo hoo hoo
This is such a cute idea! I love the hint of orange on the edges.
Looks so cool. I love it!
Ok, so I wonder… how can you do this without gluing the covers together so you can close the book back up and store it flat? Or do you just get rid of it and make a new one next year?
I’m thinking some trees might make for good pre-Christmas gifts for some of my family, but being a dude… I think I’ll likely use my scroll saw to cut them out instead of scissors.
Thank you. It was a lot of fun to make and I love the way it turned out!
Thank you. I love it too =)
I glued the first and last page of the book together to keep it in a circular shape. I don’t store it flat…I put it in a box the way it is and just be careful not to squish it.
yes, a man should use a scroll saw instead…much more manly LOL