Papier Mache Pumpkin Tower

Ok, next up with our series on "altering those little plastic pumpkins" is this Pumpkin Tower (totem pole).

It's based on this wooden pumpkin tower (totem pole) that I made several years ago.
































MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- 2 of those little plastic pumpkins from the Dollar store
- white glue
- a few paper towels
- water
- recycled container for the glue mix
- sheet of wax or parchment paper, or an old plastic bag
- paint, acrylic or tempera
- Mod Podge, optional






PROCEDURE:

Cut or tear your paper towels into strips.  Mix up your white glue with some warm water (makes it feel less yucky for the kids) in your recycled container. 1 to 1 ratio.

Remove the plastic handle.

Working on top of your wax paper,

start covering your little pumpkin with strips crossing the ends over. 

The middle pumpkin only needs a couple of coats but for the bottom one you want it to be a bit larger so add a few more.

Add a few features in papier mache to the faces.

Leave the opening in the plastic pumpkin as is, you don't need to cover it over.

For the top pumpkin I took a 1/2 sheet of paper towel and scrunched it into a ball.  I then papier mache a layer or two on top of this. You could also use paper, foil or newspaper.


Try to keep it smaller than your middle pumpkin.

When you added all the features you want let dry.  You'll need to turn them every so often to get all sides to dry out.

When they have dried out, (a couple of days), paint with acrylic or tempera.

I wanted my top pumpkin to have a witch hat so I made one out of felt.

I used the glue gun but you could use tacky glue.

Glue on top of your little pumpkin.

Then start gluing your tower together.  I used the glue gun as I was a bit impatient but you could use tacky glue again here.

Now if after gluing your tower doesn't stand up you can push in the bottom of large pumpkin.  This should help.

If you want you can seal the pumpkins with Mod Podge for a nice shiny coat.


.........and that's it.  You can vary your tower having the faces looking out at slightly different positions if you want.

I also do a variation of this with Grade 1 and Kindergarten using paper.  We talk about facial expressions and try to get 3 different looks to our pumpkins.




Give it a try and I'll see you next time.