With less than 2 weeks, Thanksgiving is almost here! Are you ready?  Have you planned out the place cards yet? Sometimes that’s the best part!  I know I’m always surprised and touched when a hostess goes out of her way to make my simple dining experience special.  It’s just those little touches that make the event all the worthwhile. I hope you’ll enjoy this tutorial I made up for you….

To make these “Pop-up”  Pumpkin Place Cards, you will need the following:

• Assorted orange cardstock
• Orange cardstock with a white core.
• Green cardstock
• Cream colored cardstock (or assorted as shown.)
• A 1 1/2 circle punch or cutting template
• Scissors
• Fine sand paper
• Tacky glue
• Brown ink
• Access to any die cutting machine (personal or store use)
• Embossing folders
• Scalloped square die or trace and cut from a template
• Die with leaves and vines
• Any color scrap paper

Begin by cutting out your scalloped squares. When you have as many as you need, run them through your die machine with your choice of embossing folder. I really love the versatility of embossing folders and this particular one reminds me of old vintage quilts.

Next, gently fold each card in half. Don’t worry about creasing each card too hard as the embossed edges can tear if you apply the same pressure you might use for standard card making.  Take your brown ink and lightly color the front of your card.  ( Just the raised parts.) Distress the edges as well if desired.

Foe each pumpkin, you will need 5 circles. 1 made from the scrap and 4 from the orange cardstock. Fold each of the orange circles in half. Then apply a generous bit of glue to the scrap  and attach your 1st folded circle.

Attach the 2nd folded circle to the 1st, adding more glue as to go until you have attached the 4th  folded circle to the 3rd. Make sense? It’s really addicting once you start! Finish by attaching the flap of the 4th folded circle to the remaining section of the scrap circle. Make all your “pop-up” pumpkins and set aside to dry.

To make the embossed pumpkins, You will want to punch circles from your white core cardstock and place them in a embossing folder. Run the folder through your machine as you did the scalloped squares. Then with your sandpaper, lightly buff the raised design on each circle to reveal the white core.

For your pumpkin vine, Run your vine die and green paper through your machine or use a design from another type of die cutting machine. For this, I simply cut away what I did not need and just used the curly vines.

Apply a good dab of glue to each card,  attach the vine first, then your pop-up pumpkin. Add a extra leaf with a hand written name or sentiment.

Or leave blank and know that your friends and family will be happy with what you have made, for them.

Tags: distressing, Fall, Tutorials

This entry was posted on Friday, November 12th, 2010 at 8:36 pm and is filed under General Chatter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.