Toilet Paper Pumpkins for Fall -- Picture Tutorial

I have been seeing a lot of these cute little pumpkins around the web, but they have been made with fabric.  I wanted this to be more of a kid craft and with less expensive materials.  My first thought was to use tissue paper, but I was not able to locate any close by, so I looked for another option and found a orange party napkins. 

Supplies Needed:

20 count pack of orange party napkins in dinner size (available at Dollar General for $1; you will use 2 napkins per pumpkin)

Glue stick

2 Plastic Grocery Sacks per pumpkin

1 small roll of toilet paper per pumpkin

Construction Paper in the color of your choice for leaves & stem

Scissors

I missed taking one picture and that was the first step... (sigh)... Anyway, the first step is to open up two of the napkins and lie them on top of each other as pictured.  Lift TOP napkin back and apply glue using your glue stick to the top side of the BOTTOM napkin... just a small amount around the edge. Fold your TOP napkin back into place and that is where we start in the pic above.

{keep your eyes open or you might not get this step... ha!}

 Straighten out two plastic grocery sacks and lay them in an "+" on the center of the napkin.  Place a roll of toilet paper in the center. 

Wrap the ends of the top plastic grocery bag over the toilet paper and stuff the ends into the center.... do the same with the bottom grocery bag.

And stick your finger in the hole just for good measure.  Not really.... but you do want to make sure the bags are stuffed in as they will barely reach (and that is the reason you use small toilet paper rolls).

I am not gonna lie to you.  This is the step that got a few, "I can't do this!" comments out of my perfectionist child.  I just had to calm her down and tell her there is no wrong way here.  Start in one spot and start tucking the napkin in the top hole of the toilet paper until you get all the way around.

Again, stick your fingers in the hole to make sure it is all stuffed in.

One last time to make sure it is in there... and you can stick a tiny piece of tape in there if you have a wild piece.

I handed out all my kids a piece of brown construction paper about 2 inches wide.  I told them to crumple it up.  GASP!!!  They thought that was crazy.  You want your stem to look like a stem, though. 

So, you crumple it up and then uncrumple (you may have some tears... now worries)  and roll it up and there you have your stem. 

Stick your stem in your pumpkin hole. Again, you can add a little tape, if you want to.

We used green construction paper (one sheet did all five of our pumpkins) to make leaves and curlies. I cut out the leaves for my little ones and I cut our all our curlies. To make the curlies you cute little strips about 1/8" wide and lightly run the back of your scissors down them... very lightly... several times... and you may have to shape them a little... or you may know a better way. 

Attach leaves and curlies with a little tape as you tuck it in the hole with your stem. 

Your done!  Put them on your toilet or dining room table.  They look really cute and pretty classy for a kid craft.  Sierra added a jack-o-lantern face to hers using crayon.  I was thinking of doing this and we may still do it.  I was going to cute out peices of black construction paper eyes, noses, and mouths and simply attach them with a glue stick. 

I just want to add a couple notes: 

My little helper is my three year old, Sahara.

Also, at the end of the Fall season when you take down your decorations this little project is very recycleable.  ;)  Obviously, the main thing is toilet tissue and we all know what to do with that.  The shopping bags can be used for garbage, etc..  Hey, you could use that really big orange napkin to clean up a mess.  And if you want to be really frugal you can save that toilet paper tube for another craft.  The only thing that HAS TO go to waste are the construction paper leaves and stem (unless you can find another use for those as well).