"It's almost Trick or Treat time you know"

I had been seeing lovely little book page pumpkins like these all over the blog world.

The first guy there was done by Erin over at Stumbling Tongues.  The cutie in the middle is by Kara at Creations by Kara.  And the collection on the left is one of Country Home's holiday how to's.

With all this inspiration, I just knew I was going to have to try one out.  

I kind of mixed both Erin and Kara's tutorials together and came up with this guy

He might not have been as pretty as some of those who came before him but he was mine and I loved him.

So how did I make my little paperback pumpkin that could?

First I gathered my materials:

old paperback novel from my give away pile

pen or pencil (to draw with)

super sharp utility knife (shhh don't tell Tony but I stole it from him)

scissors

stick from the yard

leftover yellow and red acrylic paints (and paint brush)

hot glue gun

Poor unsuspecting paperback has no idea that seemingly innocent knife next to it is about to change it's life forever

First I free handed a pumpkin shape onto the first page (I skipped the cover but left it in tact to cut down with scissors later, the knife probably would have worked but it seemed a tad dangerous)

The knife and I hacked and hacked until the poor innocent paperback looked like this

(told you those scissors were going to make a cameo)

Then it was time to paint out the edges.  I mixed together some left over red and yellow acrylic paint to get the perfect an acceptable shade of orange, painted just the edges of the pages and let that dry.  It didn't take long, about 30 minutes.  The acrylic paint made the pages stick together in kind of bunches, which I thought worked well since the pages didn't seem to want to spread around too terribly evenly and the paint clumping them together at least kept them from all moving back to their original spots, i.e. one big clump of pages resembling a book instead of a pumpkin.  

I hot glued the front and back covers together to make my little guy round out. I also hot glued a stick from the yard to the top for a steam, and Voila!  My little paperback pumpkin that could

He had the perfect spot right here

between my painted dollar store pumpkins a top the wood burning stove/fireplace in the living room (notice the empty spot, ignore the dust that painfully marks the empty spot)

Where has my little guy gone you ask?

A whole host of d-words happened to him.  Destroyed. Devoured. Digested. Discarded. In a word?  

Delilah.

With less than a week left before Halloween, do I dare attempt another paperback pumpkin ????

Probably. 

That sucker was a cutie, and he would make a great centerpiece for a Fall tablescape after the spooktacular holiday has passed...