Book Pumpkins!

Fall is one of my favorite seasons.  It’s hard to think about summer ending, but the excitement I feel when I realize that boot season is coming makes the thought of summers end bearable and almost anticipated.  Fall means hot cocoa and bon fires, crisp air and the forests come alive with color.  I love the warm tones of yellow, the deep crimson, and the vibrant orange, all contrasting against the green. 

My favorite memories of Fall often center around how the inside of our home always changed with the season.  My mom’s favorite holiday was Halloween and she loved to decorate, I think this was because her birthday is in October.  Our house would come alive with decorations, nothing too scary, we didn’t do witches or ghouls, but the ghosts, pumpkins, gourds, and cobwebs were appropriately displayed and hidden around the house. 

With my mom’s birthday quickly approaching and the harvest season upon us, I saw an image of pumpkins made out of old books.  I realized hey, I can do that! And now, so can you! 

Supplies:

Softback novels (2)

1.      note: You will have to consider the size you want your pumpkin to be and the thickness you desire to   choose books that will fit your criteria.  Personally I chose to use two Stephen King novels because they were the same size binding (which is important) and his novels are a good 600-700 pages, this meant I only needed to use two books to create the thickness I was looking for.  If your books are smaller you may choose to use 3 or more.

Glue gun

Glue sticks (I needed 2)

Scissors

Pencil

Stick

Ribbon

Directions:

Step One.

Nicely tear the front and back cover off of your books

Step Two

 Now take your pencil and sketch the outline of your pumpkin.  The binding of the book will be          

the center of your pumpkin so make the mark on the edge of the pages creating rounded corners.

Step Three

Now taking a few pages at a time cut along your penciled lines.  Do this continually until you have cut the top and bottom right hand corners of all the pages. 

Step Four

Work the binding of the books a little bit so that they become flimsy.  While you are doing this allow your glue gun to warm up.

Step Five

Line your books up on top of each other and make sure that they align.  It is okay if not all the pages are perfect because pumpkins are not perfectly round.  Take the glue gun and place glue on the pages of each book connecting the books together.  Make sure to get along the edge where the bindings meet. 

Step Six

Allow the glue to cool and then set the books upright.  Pull the pages around so that the front page of the first novel and the back page of the second novel meet.  You should notice that the bindings bent backwards create an inner circle in the middle of the pumpkin.  Place glue along the edge of the binding where the first and last page meet and then glue the pages together.  Hold the books in place until the glue hardens. 

Step Seven

Take your branch and fit it in the center of the pumpkin where the stem would be.  Cut it to stick out as desired. Remove the branch and tie some ribbon on the stem about half an inch below the point where it will surface.  (I used two pieces of ribbon in each pumpkin) Then place the stem back in the center and pull and fluff the ribbon to peak out of the center as desired.  

Step Eight

Display your pumpkins proudly