Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere. Fall and especially for Halloween, you see pumpkins of every shape and size around. I’ve been testing out this craft at home, and with friends, of making a paper flower pumpkin. I’ve made these cool, simple flowers before in my upcycled paper bag paper flower bouquet, or in a pretty paper flower topiary when we were at Miss Expo. This time I wanted to make a festive paper flower craft in honor of Fall, and the paper flower pumpkin was born!

This makes a perfect mom and daughter craft. Something that you can work on together. The supplies are simple, and the technique isn’t complicated, and its fun making this together.

Here is what you will need to make your own paper flower pumpkin:

• 2 1/2″ styrofoam ball
• orange craft acrylic paint and foam brush to apply
• 12-16 orange paper circles (5 1/2″ diameter from heavier scrapbook or cardstock paper)
• scissors
• headpins
• glue gun
• stick gathered from outside or orange craft stick
• small dowel or pencil
• dark green pipe cleaner

Here is how craft your own pumpkin:

The first thing you need is to paint your foam ball orange using the paint and foam brush. Paint on foam balls takes awhile to dry, so you want to get this done first. I squirted some plate on a paper plate and applied all around the ball. Holding the ball and painting can get a little messy, so make sure to wash your hands after before going to the next step.

Now it is time to make your paper flowers. The supplies you need for this are your scissors, headpins, and glue gun. I also created a handy Paper Flower cutting template to help. Download the Paper Flower cutting template as many times as you need.

Basically you start cutting into the circle on one edge creating about a 3/4″ wide spiral strip. You continue cutting until you reach the center, leaving about a quarter sized circle in the middle. Once you get the hang of how to cut each circle you won’t need the template.

Don’t worry, your spirals don’t need to be perfect. When you roll the flowers they will all look great.

Now you are ready to roll your beautiful paper flowers.

I use a thin dowel rod to get me started. With the same end that you started cutting your spiral, you start rolling it tightly into the center. Once I get started with the dowel rod (you can use a pencil too if you like, but I like a little tighter roll) and have a firm grip on it, I take it and continue to roll with my fingers. I have found it is easiest to use your finger and thumb on one hand to keep the roll tightly together, and use the other hand to guide it to the center. Keep rolling until you get to the circle shape in the middle. Now let go of your roll. It should unravel a bit, and turn into a beautiful flower shape. You can even twist your roll the opposite way you just rolled it to open it up a little. It depends how big or small you want your flower to be.

The center circle is where your flower will be secured. Now it time for the gluing process.

Begin by poking a headpin right through the center of the center circle of your flower. You want the pointy pin side pointing out or away from your flower “petals”. Push it all the way through, and then put a small pool of glue from your glue gun on top and on the center of the flower. This is where the bottom edges of your spiral are going to be glued to, so make sure to put enough on to secure the flower. Be careful – THE GLUE IS HOT. Carefully press the bottom edges of your flower into the glue and let set. I usually place my flower face down to set and move on to making the rest of the flowers before moving on to the next step.

When you have made all of your paper flowers, it is now time to assemble your paper flower pumpkin. Make sure your painted foam ball is dry first, and then have all of your flowers on hand. Also, grab your stick (or craft stick) for the pumpkin stem.

This is the part my tween loves to do. Arrange your papers by poking them into the painted foam ball. Depending on how tightly you rolled your flowers, I have found that you need between 12-16 completed flowers to cover the whole ball. When you are happy with your flower covered ball, decide where you want the top of your pumpkin to be and where there might be a little space to stick the stem. Poke a small stick (I used one about 3″ long) into the ball to secure.

Now grab your green pipe cleaner and wind it around a pencil.

Now take the pipe cleaner off of the pencil and pull out a little bit from end to end to loosen the twist a little. Place the center of the pipe cleaner around the stick and twist 1-2 times to secure. Style as necessary to give the full effect. You’re done!

If you want to use a craft stick instead, I cut one in half and poked it into the foam ball just like the stick, and twisted the pipe cleaner around it.

Either way, you are left with a unique and beautiful, handcrafted paper flower pumpkin. Make one to complement your own “pumpkin patch” or for a great home decoration for Halloween and for Thanksgiving. It would make a great table centerpiece as well.

You can use this crafty technique is so many ways. You can modify it for the holidays coming up. I can envision some cute red and green paper flower ornaments or using the flowers for gift wrap bows. Or make a pretty topiary with multi-colored paper roses. Once you make the roses for your pumpkin, you will certainly be a pro at paper flower making.

Happy Crafting!

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