Pumpkin Treat Boxes

I do love decorating my fireplace with seasonal bits n bobs so was really excited to make my own paper pumpkins for the autumn decs using the Pumpkin Builder Dies from Concord and 9th and they are fabulous - the die set makes them in 3 sizes.  However, I thought they would be even better if you could make them so you could open them (the standard way is to glue all 6 pieces together) and I found a easy trick to do it using our velcro dots.   This means you can make little Halloween treat boxes or table favours with them and it's super easy!    I've made them in two sizes - the smallest and the medium.

I just cut the 6 pieces as you would  to make a solid version - I used some old patterned paper thats autumnal and some clementine card alternating 3 of each for each pumpkin, but you can use all one colour, stamp some, emboss some - whatever you fancy!

You just glue the 6 larger hexagons on top of each other and you end up with an open "star" shape.  At this point, flip over (if your pattern is different) and curl each "point" of the star around a pencil to get a little shaping - this stops the finished pumpkin getting creases when you connect the top.   The difference to make them "openable" is that instead of just repeating the glueing on the top - you glue 3 points adjacent points and then glue the opposite 3 points together BUT DO NOT JOIN THE TWO SIDES.   See the steps below:

To give the pumpkin the opportunity to open and close repeatedly - all you need do now is add a single velcro dot on the top hexagon - the dots are self adhesive so just apply both sides to the left hand hexagon and pull the right hand side into place and press to close (I find popping a pencil in the gap to apply upward pressure here is helpful).  The dies also have 2 sizes of leaves, a curl and a stalk.   Die cut the leaves and then mountain and valley fold them to get the shaping, create the stalk and glue it all on top.

The smallest one is the perfect size for a single chocolate favoured by the embassador ;-)   The medium holds 3 or 4 our could take a small packet of somelthing like haribo if you were aiming at smaller peeps.  I've yet to make up the largest size but it would be half as large again as the medium  so could even hold a small toy.

Hope that's given you a new twist on pumpkin season!

Happy Crafting

Tara