How To Make Rustic Tissue Paper Pumpkins

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Learn How To Make Quick and Easy Tissue Paper Pumpkins to (Pumpkin) Spice Up Your Fall Decor

Hey Makers!

You know that friend you have that loves fall? Like REALLY loves fall? The one that just really thrives in October? That’s me! Only I live in a small apartment, so I don’t have room to store a lot of decorations for the rest of the year. So this year, I set out to make some pretty DIY autumn decor, that can be folded or squished down when I’m done with it, and then fluffed back when I pull it out again for next year. One of the projects I ended up going with was tissue paper pumpkins.

Now, I’ve made tissue paper pom poms before and I love how they look, but I wanted these pumpkins to imitate the ribbing on actual pumpkins, so I went with a different approach, and my goodness did they turn out cute! Plus, the way they are folded makes it so you can easily press them flat when you’re done with them and they hardly take up any space in your fall decor box.

They are also made with only two (both inexpensive) materials, so that’s a win!

Shall we make some?

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Supplies for DIY Tissue Paper Pumpkins

Materials:
Orange Tissue paper (12-16 sheets makes up to 4 pumpkins)
Brown Vine Wrapped Florist Wire

Tools:
Rotary cutter
Self-healing cutting mat
Wire cutters
Pliers (optional)

Tissue Paper Pumpkins DIY Tutorial

STEP ONE: CUT WIRE AND TISSUE PAPER

First, use your wire cutters to trim a 5″ piece of rustic wire for the stem. Bend a small U-shape into the end of it and set it aside.

Next, stack 12-16 sheets of tissue paper and cut them into squares. (The bigger you want to make your pumpkin, the more layers you will need to make it look full. Your pumpkin will end up being about the same width as the squares you cut, and just a little shorter than the height. Then round off the corners to make a squashed circle shape.

You can do this with scissors if you don’t have a rotary cutter and mat, but it much faster and easier to get smooth edges this way.

STEP TWO: FOLD AND SECURE THE TISSUE PAPER

Next, accordion-fold the tissue paper, holding it all together at the middle.

Wedge the middle of the accordion into the U-shape at the bottom of your wire, and wrap it tightly to secure.

Unfold both sides of the accordion so it looks like a butterfly.

Bend the end of the wire up, so that it sticks out of the top.

STEP THREE: SHAPE PUMPKIN

Slowly and carefully, start separating the individual layers of tissue paper. I’ve found it works easier if you separate several sheets from the rest all at once, and then start separating those. They’re much less likely to rip that way than if you tried to pull one apart from the other 11.

Work your way around the pumpkin until all the layers are separated. Then go back and space everything out until it’s nice and even and there are no holes where you can see into the middle.

STEP FOUR: SHAPE STEM

This part may be easier with pliers, but I was able to do it just fine with only my hands. Fold the stem over itself so that the end is facing down into the pumpkin. Then twist the loop around itself so the wire stays together.

Voila! Your very own tissue paper pumpkin!

Try making them in several different shades of orange and yellow or layering two shades together to give it a striped effect.

Stay crafty,
-KatyAnna

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