Happy Pumpkin Day ~ Orange Shimmer Paper Delight

Halloween can be fun for kids as adults in this easy pumpkin craft. Our Happy Pumpkin Day craft is made from FAV Shimmer, Orange Gold Fusion, 107 lb cover. 

Happy Pumpkin Day

There are many ways that you can dress up your pumpkin with as little to a lot of decoration.

My favorite is the one that is embossed with a Tim Holtz Ink Black Soot and sprinkled with Black Embossing Powered and fixed with a heat gun. Here is a youtube demo on how to do it by Tim Holtz.

The smaller pumpkin got the ink jet printer in black ink, which printed a light grey, with the iridescent Orange Gold Fusion sheen coming through the black ink. The orange ink jet ink came true to color, but it was on orange paper, so the paper enhanced the color.

The larger pumpkin was also printed using an ink jet, and the green also was a bit transparent as the paper sheen came through, and quite lovely.  In order to make the pumpkin taller, print 3 sheets of just lines, glittering them if appropriate, and cut them in half; each strip of paper gets extended by 1/2 length for a total of 15.5″, after using 1/2″ ScorTape and glue to hold them in place. 

You will have some extra to use later for the faces. Cut it before you tape it unless you have a very long paper cutter or want to do it by hand. Note:  there are cut lines in the design to help the process.

Having a small or large pumpkin the process is the same. Use a brass fastener to attach the tops and bottoms of the paper cutouts together. To further make the rotation easier, cut angles into the sides of each strip as shown in the photo. Open the strips into a circle.

The curlicues on top of the pumpkins are varying widths of Curious Skin Emerald, 100 lb paper. Cut the width between 1.5″ and 2″,  the full 11″ long: the small pumpkins get 3 strips and the large pumpkin get 4 strips. Tape and glue them into curlicues.  Use clothespins or paper clips to hold them until they dry.

The face and base are made from Shine, Onyx, 107 lb cover.  The face is a series of die cut circles, with smaller circles used to remove shapes.  The girl’s top lip curve was hand cut, as were the noses. For ease of application, the faces are attached to a scrap rectangle of orange paper. The wiggly eyes are just for fun.

The bat is made of Shine, Onyx, 80lb text, There are 2 bats glued back to back on a strip of black paper with a web punched in the bottom.  Add something shiny in the middle of the head.  The wings are folded so it is a 4 winged bat; who doesn’t love those, right?

The base is the heavy Shine, Onyx, 107lb cover, cut a 1.5″ strip a full 11″ and punch a web along one side or cut to make it look weblike. Make the base into a circle, cutting to suit, taping and gluing it allows your pumpkin to stay in place.

Curious Skin, made by Mohawk, offer a high selection of textures and appearance, some matted and shiny, but all are high performance and two-sided. The Skins are a deep, vibrant, matte color with homogenous coloring, but also is fingerprint resistance. It is FSC certified and made with wind power.

The FAV Shimmers are a work of art; the orange color just one of the many beautiful colors, but all are a mixture of pigments and iridescent particles, also colored all the way through. Much is made of the ability to print this iridescent paper on a laser printer, and it prints deep and rich, which is why they recommend it. 

Any good crafter likes to push the limits and this project was used to show the possibilities for printing on an inkjet.  It is transparent with the strong paper color and the gold diluting the black into a dark grey, but as a design element, don’t overlook it.  

It is a watercolor effect that has a charm all its own, allowing one design to fade to the back under stamping,  laser printing, or just tone on tone as shown by the orange.

The Shine papers add another element of shine. Organic pigments are added to natural minerals that take the color from a rich dark black to a white sheen. The design element was from a free clip art website.

Enjoy!

Products used to make this craft:

• Curious Skin
  • Emerald, 100 lb cover (Make sure to check out Green Cardstock Paper as a replacement)
• FAV Shimmer
  • Orange Gold Fusion, 107 lb cover
• Shine
  • Onyx, 107 lb cover
  • Onyx, 80 lb text