End of the Week Technique # 7 Fall Pumpkins

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Hey y'all! I hope everything's going good for you today and you are getting a moment to just sit down and relax while you take a quick peek in here.
Do you have the day off tomorrow? I hope you do and you get to sleep in! How nice would that be! I get the day off, and just have to work a few hours tomorrow night, so I can't complain too much.

The sun is trying to shine here in the DMV, although the weatherman says the rain is coming and worse, oh so much worse than that, he says the cold is coming too! It should be in the 40's tomorrow! *GASP* *SHIVER*

As much as I would like to deny it, I think I finally have to admit it.... Fall is Here.

With that in mind, today's technique is a project we did at last weekend's Fall Stamp Camp. We made some sweet little pumpkins. They are not the original idea I had for a project, but I was very pleased with how they turned out, my stampers loved them and in the end I think it was a much friendlier beginner project.

I made two. One ahead of time and one with my ladies. (Actually, I made about 5, trying different techniques, but these are the only 2 anyone is ever likely to see. LOL)

Here's a picture of them on my kitchen table. Aren't they cute?

 I used Pumpkin Pie for one and Cajun Craze for the other.

Here's a closer view-

You can't really tell from this angle, but the one in the front is a little squatter. I was experimenting with strip lengths. You definitely need at least 6 inches for this project. While cute, this one just isn't as full and round, and it was definitely harder to assemble.

I combined ideas from a couple of different sites and people for these to make them my own.
You'll need the following-
2 - 6 x 6 inch sections of cardstock. You will cut this down later into 12 - 6 x 1 inch strips
2 brads
Whatever stamp set you would like to use for the leaves and
1/4 inch strip of green cardstock (I used Old Olive) to make the vine
Embossing Folder (This is optional and you can use the embossing folder of your choice)

Tip- If you want to use an embossing folder you have 2 options. I tried using a 5 1/2 inch strip to fit the dimensions of the folder and it's really to short. Perhaps if you had less strips it might work, I'm not sure, I didn't have time to make more. Sorry.

Option 1- Put the cardstock in your desired folder and run in through your Big Shot. Once it comes out, shift the cardstock down and realign the cardstock with the embossed images. It should be fairly easy to see and align, at least it was with the dots. Run it through your Big Shot again. Do this until your cardstock is completely covered with your image.
I did this the first time, and it was fairly quick and painless. The difficulty comes when you cut your cardstock. It takes a little more effort to cut through the texturized paper. I found it doesn't cut as quickly
and cleanly.

Option 2- Cut your cardstock into 1inch strips, place them in your embossing folder and run them through your Big Shot. I preferred this method and laid 4 strips in the folder at a time so it took 3 passes to emboss the strips.

Experiment and see what works best for you.

1- Once you have your strips embossed and cut out, or just cut out if you don't want to emboss, line them up and place them in the small punch side of your Crop-A-Dile tool. It will punch through all layers at once. Flip it around to the other end and do the same.

2- Take one of your brads and insert it into the strips and open it up. The head will be on the outside of your pumpkin, the flanges on the inside.

3- Fan out your strips. Take your second brad and hold it flanges up this time. One by one start bringing your strips up and sliding the punched hole over the upright ends of your brad.

4- As you do this you will fan the strips you have brought up into a circle and you will see your pumpkin taking shape. You may have to shift your fingers around a little as you near the last of your strips. Just be sure to keep one finger on the inside of your pumpkin at all times holding the brad upright.

5- Once you have all your strips on the brad, open it up. It's okay that the flanges are on the outside. This will be the bottom of your pumpkin. Move your strips around until they are evenly spaced and you are happy with how they look. You may have to gently mold your pumpkin here to get the shape just right, but it should be pretty close to just right.

6- For my vine I just gently curled my 1/4 inch strip of Old Olive cardstock around a ballpoint pen and slid the pen out.You can make this as long or short as you would like. I adhered it to my pumpkin with a Mini-Glue Dot directly on top of my brad head.

7- Stamp and cut out your leaves. I used the leaves from the Day of Gratitude set. (One of my all-time favorites) I used Cajun Craze and More Mustard and for the More Mustard one I used the Rock and Roll technique where I stamped first in More Mustard and then rolled the edges of the stamp on the Cajun Craze pad. This gave me a two-toned leave. I adhered them with more Mini-Glue Dots and that's all it took. The most time consuming part was the embossing and cutting.

Here's some closer pictures- Here's the Pumpkin Pie one-

This is the Cajun Craze one-

You can see a little here that it looks like the paper is bent out a little more and it's not as full. This one was done with the 5 1/2 inch strips instead of the 6 inch strips. Still cute, just not as fat and sassy! You can really see the stamping on the leaf in this one though.

Well, I hope you liked today's offering. These would look super cute on a Thanksgiving table, or anywhere for a nice Fall accent. In fact one of my ladies was taking hers to her office.

I hope they inspire you to try something different today. As always, if something here inspires you, I would love to see it, please feel free to send me a pic! If you liked today's project, I would love it if you left me a comment. It's great when I get to hear from you! Also, if you liked today's card, please feel free to +1 or Pin it. I've added the buttons to my side-bar for your convenience. Friends and Followers are also welcome. :)

You can shop in my online store HERE 24/7 to get the supplies you need to recreate these little cuties or many other projects.

Don't forget our FREE Big Shot offer has been extended, but only until tomorrow. You can get a FREE Big Shot or $100 in FREE merchandise, but you have to hurry!

I hope you have a wonderful day and a Safe Holiday! Hope to see you back here real soon for more ideas and projects.

Till then,

Be Safe,
Shan



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