Paper Pumpkin

Sitting in my craft room literally waiting for paint to dry (spider earrings coming up soon!) and looking for a quickie project -  this pretty marbled paper from Stampin' Up reminds me of a squash so I whipped up a paper pumpkin that I'm going to put on my desk (and if I get out to Ronda's studio any time soon I'll make one to add to her seasonal display table!). This is a very easy, kid friendly, cute Halloween or fall decoration - cheap and quick too! That kinda makes for the perfect craft in my book.

Supplies:

•  decorative paper
• 2 brads
• small hole bunch
• scissors and ruler,  or cutting board
• 2 green pipe cleaners (chenille stems, whatever - I've always called them pipe cleaners!)
• pencil to curl the pipe cleaners
• twine
• cork
• round cardboard to give the bottom some stability

Cut 1 inch strips of paper (how long the strips are will determine the size of your finished pumpkin). My paper is 12" square and I cut 24 strips (2 pieces of paper) and that's as big a pumpkin as you're going to get with standard 12" square paper.

Hole punch both ends of each strip and thread all of one end onto a brad, then all of the other end onto a brad. Spread the strips apart evenly to form the pumpkin.

 Glue a piece of cardboard to the bottom to make it more stable and it'll help keep the strips in place.

Glue a wine cork to the top like a stem - you can paint it if you want but I wrapped twine around mine instead. I also found the cork sat better on top of the brad by carving out a little circle from the bottom of the cork - then fit the cork over the brad.

Curl both ends of the pipe cleaner around a pencil, then twist around the cork. Glue twine around the cork if you want - I like how it looks but painting the stem cork would also be cool - how about glitter paint?

10.5.17 make a mummy picture

10.5.16 m&m cookie bars
















10.5.15 squash ghosts

Card Holder (from re-purposed junk!)

This is a totally jerry-rigged odd thing I made for Ronda's display table using stuff that was just laying around - but it turned out pretty cute and Ronda didn't make fun of it, so I'll share. Not since I made the travel jewelry pouch using a potholder and plastic baggies (click here for that post) have I created such a totally made up thing that could potentially be lame but turned out ok, hahaha.

So - this is an unfinished wood candleholder, an empty ribbon spool, hoop earrings, beads, a wine cork, and some twine. First I covered the top of the spool with some Stampin' Up patterned paper. Cut a slit into the top of the cork, put it thru the spool, and stood it up in the candleholder. Then inserted a cute flat card into the slit and hot glued some twine along the edges of the spool. That looked pretty good but it needed a little more jazzing up so I punched four holes in the spool, threaded the earring hoops thru and added a bead on each one.

The finished display table ~ click here to see how to make the popsicle Adirondack chair and paper hat; click here to see how to make spider mum paper flowers; and click here to see how to make k-cup twine and starfish garland: 

Wine Cork Keychain

This is just about the fastest easiest craft ever - it literally took me less than 5 minutes! ALL you do is put a keyring on a screw-in eye hook, then screw it into the cork. Done. What a cute fun inexpensive easy creative gift, it would be even better with a special cork commemorating a date or celebration. You could also add a little tag to the keyring to label the event or what the key is for.  Love this idea!

I made another one that took a minute or so longer by adding a little chain between the eye screw and the ring - also really cute and easy. 

found this idea online at Cleverly Inspired.