Pumpkin Honeycomb Decorations

Learning how to create honeycomb decorations has been a bit of a revelation to me [I made tissue paper decorations here, here and with felt, here] - so I'm making more for Halloween decor and if you fancy it, I guarantee its much simpler than you may think! [also, strangely therapeutic]. 

What I Used:

5 sheets of orange tissue paper

Black Card

Glue Stick / Scissors

To start, you need to fold your 5 sheets into halves, until a rectangle of approximately XXcm x XXcm is achieved [this is only an additional fold if buying tissue paper in a pack like mine].

Next, trim off all the folded edges to create a tower of separate sheets of tissue paper, all of a [approximately] equal size:

Create a honeycomb template by taking a sheet of paper and marking guidelines - I made lines 2cm in width and labelled them in turn [1] and [2]:

Lay your tissue paper parallel to the guidelines and trace the lines with your glue stick - firstly, following all lines labelled [1]:

...before adding the next piece of tissue paper on top and following lines labelled [2] with the glue.  Then add the next piece of tissue paper and continue alternating with the glue between guidelines

 [1] and [2].

Leave your stack of glued tissue paper to dry fully.  Once dry, start to open your honeycomb, by gently pulling either end away from the other.  This is also a perfect opportunity to see where any areas may not have stuck properly and can be fixed.

To create my pumpkin shape, I used a side plate to draw the curve, around 3cm past the edge.  This allowed me to create a round, but with a flat top and bottom, more like a pumpkin than sphere: 

Cut following the line with scissors 

[you may need to tidy up the lines if the tissue paper stack is particularly thick]:

...and then add a piece of card to one end.  This will help provide stability and give the opposite side something to be attached to once the honeycomb decoration is opened.  Finally, thread a piece of string through the sheets that will be the top of the honeycomb decoration and loosely knot to hold in place.  This will be your hanging:

Once fully dried, gently start opening your honeycomb decoration so that both ends meet.  You can fix them in place with paperclips:

Your pumpkin should be taking shape - all that is missing is a face:

I used black card and glue to add eyes and a mouth:

....and your pumpkin is ready to hang!

I also created a non-hanging, half-pumpkin version to frame.

Simply use half the number of tissue paper pieces and attach the ends to a flat surface with glue or sticky-tac:

An optional extras is a stalk - add green card or even create a small honeycomb version from green tissue paper.  Recreate these in white or grey for ghostly or mummified faces, green for Frankenstein or zombie faces or how about black for cat faces - add pipe-cleaners for spiders?  Maybe next year.

see you next time x

[I highly recommend coming back tomorrow.  One word. Teacakes]