Make it Monday

Before we moved to Hawaii, we lived in Florida where I worked at a University Library.

I took it upon myself to put my creativeness to work and always enjoyed making our check out desk look inviting.

During fall, we were doing a weeding project (getting rid of several reference books and going digital). I saw all of those beautiful books sitting on carts waiting to be discarded. It made me kinda sad actually…

Although they had served their purpose, I felt there was a little bit of life left in them! I decided to make them my next DIY project!

I turned them into pumpkins!

It is a really simple project actually!

First, you need to find a book. Choose one you have no attachment to, because you will be cutting it up! Book sales or thrift stores are a great place to find old books just begging to be used again. You are going to want a pretty thick book for this project to make it look right. The height of the book will be the hight of your pumpkin. The thickness will be how thick your pumpkin is. Old Reference books worked perfect–think old encyclopedias or dictionaries…
Once you have your book, you will want to remove the cover. Try to keep the glue still on the pages so it can hold the book together still. Most covers come off rather easily with an Exacto knife. This part can be a little emotionally hard if you are a loyal book nerd like me. But, keep in mind how great this will turn out!
The next step is drawing your pumpkin shape. You will want to use a pencil to draw the outline of a pumpkin (just a half of it-like a “c” shape.)
Once your “c” is drawn, use an Exacto knife to start cutting along the line all of the way through the pages.
Now, you can fan the pages out to see your pumpkin! Now, to keep it fanned out, you can either tape, glue, staple or paperclip your front pages to the back pages. Whatever works for you to keep it “fanned” out.
To top it off, I used a piece of wood bark from the landscaping outside. Shhhh! Don’t tell the university groundskeepers! ha I also, garnished it with a few fake leaves and some paper to make it look like pumpkin vines-optional.

That’s all there is to it!

I made 2 of these pumpkins to decorate the check out desk during the Autumn months. I had so many compliments.

Let me know if you give this project a try!

I’d love to hear how it goes! They don’t have to be just in a library setting. I think they look great in a “farmhouse” type decorated home and so many others!