How to Make Honeycomb Paper Pumpkins

* Orange and Yellow Tissue Paper

* Kraft Card

* Plate, Tea Plate, Saucer

* Spare A4 Ruled Paper Sheet

* Glue Stick

* Masking Tape

* Tacky Glue

* Scissors

* Mini Wooden Pegs or bulldog clips

Begin by making three pumpkin templates using the template download: Template Download.pdf

Use the rim of a saucer (14.5 cm diameter) to draw round with a pencil, onto spare white card. Draw round a tea plate (20 cm diameter) as before. Then, draw round a larger plate (24 cm diameter).

Cut out each circle, fold in half, and crease. Fussy cut away the top and base section to form a basic pumpkin shape.

Use the large template to cut out several different coloured tissue papers as follows:

• Cut 18 pieces of pale-yellow tissue, from the large 50 pack.
• Cut 18 pieces of the orange tissue, from the large 50 pack.
• Cut 36 pieces of yellow tissue, from the orange and yellow pack.

Create a gluing guide from a sheet of A4 ruled paper. Draw a main centre line across the middle of the page horizontally, marking it with a double arrow. Draw over each alternate line, from the centre line out towards the top and bottom of the page. Mark the two closest lines to the centre with a small circle. Then mark the next two lines away from the centre with an arrow. Repeat this alternate pattern marking all the drawn lines. This completes the gluing guide, which can be used for all sizes of pumpkin pieces.

Take one of the small yellow pumpkin pieces, fold, and pinch to create a centre mark. Place this centrally on the gluing guide and add a piece of craft tape towards the top as a further guide.

Open out the pumpkin piece. Use a glue stick to draw fine lines of glue from the fold line out to the edges. Place these lines of glue following all the guidelines marked with an arrow, including the main centre line.

Fold the pumpkin piece closed, and gently press flat. Repeat this process for all the other yellow pieces.

Next, place one of the prepared yellow pieces back onto the gluing guide. This time add fine lines of glue to the top surface, following the lines marked with a circle. Then place another piece exactly on top and press down.

Repeat this process gluing and adding more pieces, until all 30 have been attached in a stack.

Repeat the whole gluing process again for all of the medium orange pumpkin pieces.

Repeat the first part of the gluing process for all the large pumpkin pieces.

When gluing to create the stack, glue three pale yellow pieces together, then three yellow, then three orange, and then back to yellow again. Repeat this colour order, until all the colours are used.

Draw round the small template folded, onto a sheet of dark yellow card and cut out. Repeat to make another shape. Trim around the outer edges a couple more millimetres, making the shapes smaller. Glue one in place on top of the prepared stack of yellow pieces, so that the straight edge matches the fold line, and the shaped edge is just within the outer edge of the tissue layers.

Glue the second shape to the base of the prepared tissue stack.

Neaten the curved tissue edges by trimming any uneven layers.

Repeat this process to cover the medium orange stack with orange card.

Repeat again covering the larger stack with dark yellow card.

Apply glue along the straight folded edge of the prepared pumpkin stacks to hold the spine in place. Allow to dry with a few mini pegs clamping the layers together.

When dry, gently open out the stacks to form a 3D pumpkin. Hold in place using mini pegs. Inspect the results of the honeycomb effect, carefully teasing apart any areas caught by extra gluing.

Create pumpkin plant tendrils, by cutting thin stripes from the shorter edge of a sheet of the dark yellow card. Snip one end into a rounded shape. Curl the tendril around a smooth pencil, in a spiral. Make four of these.

Repeat this process cutting along the longer edge, making two more for the largest pumpkin.