Decorating on a Dollar – A Gourd by Any Other Name…

Today I want to show you a wonderful
idea that should cost any of you less then a $1 in supplies. We will be
re-purposing a used book that has seen better days. Instead of recycling
this worn out beast lets create something beautiful out of it.

Book Pumpkin #1

Supplies:

Step 1: Rip off the front and back covers of the
paper back book. Begin cutting with an exacto knife the curve of the
pumpkin. (It can be done with scissors but it is a bit harder to control
your edges and shape.)

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Step 2: Once you have cut all the pages into the
pumpkin curve you need to ink it with a golden/orange color to help
create the “pumpkin” look.

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Step 3: Using Helmar 450 Quick Dry, glue the front
and back pages and inside the back binding to each other, opening the
book 360 degrees. Hold in place for a couple of min and begin to
separate any pages clumped together. NOTE: Helmar 450 Quick Dry really is the best glue for the job here. No Joke! I tried to
use a hot glue gun for this step and found that the head melts the
origional binding glue and it winds up to be a bigger mess (with the
binding falling apart) then you wanted.

Step 4: Using Helmar Gemstone Glue select 7-9 pages
around the pumpkin to run a bead of glue on from top to bottom. Glitter
with Pumpkin Colored fine art glitter and let dry.

Step 5: While step 4 is drying take a brown paper
bag and twist and contort it into a stem for your pumpkin. I added brown
puff paint to give it more of a two tone color. Fancy cut some fall
leaves out of paper (I used a sheet from Robin’s Nest) and glitter with Gemstone Glue and a gold colored glitter.

Step 6: Using Helmar 450 glue the paper bag Stem onto the pumpkin and embellish with fancy cut glittered leaves and some flowers.

Here are a few more examples of the pumpkins. Enjoy and Have a Happy Helmar Day!

Short and fat:

Book Pumpkin #2 short and fat

Tall and lumpy:
Book Pumpkin #4 tall and concave sides

L. Grace Lauer  
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