How to Make Paper Pumpkins for Fall

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Paper Craft Tutorial: How to Make Paper Pumpkins for Fall

These little pumpkins are so much fun to make. It’s a fun Fall craft you can do with your kids or a great adult craft to spruce up your mantel or table decor. You can try it with different colored papers in different patterns as well. Here’s my step by step tutorial for how to make paper pumpkins for fall.

Thanksgiving Table Paper Pumpkins

Here’s What You Need

Materials:

I chose these colorful Astrobrights papers. For each pumpkin you need two 8.5”X11 sheets.

Paper Pumpkins

Instructions

Cut each piece of paper vertically into five 1.5” wide strips.

Paper Pumpkins from Scrap Paper

 

Then cut each strip into one 7”, two 9”, and keep the remaining two at 11”. Important: Remember, you need two sets for one pumpkin. So each pumpkin is two pieces of paper – two 7”, four 9”, and four 11” strips.

Tutorial for DIY Paper Pumpkins

 

Fold each piece into accordion strips. Pictured here is one sheet of paper.

Accordion Paper Fall Craft

 

Next tape the TWO SETS at same lengths together with double sided tape and form a circle.

Paper Medallions for Pumpkins

 

You will end up with one circle from the 7” strips, two circles from the 9” strips, and two circles from the 11” strips.

Paper pumpkin tutorial

 

Create the 7” medallion by gluing with a hot glue gun. Just place a small dab in the center and hold a few seconds until it is dry.

Paper Pumpkins from Paper Medallions

 

Next, glue each medallion together respectively starting with the 7” on top, then 9”, then 11”, then 11”, then 9” on the bottom.

Paper Pumpkins Tutorial

 

Hot glue a stick, paper leaves, and twine on the top of your pumpkin.

Mini Paper Pumpkin How To

 

Here are a few AFTER photos!

Paper Pumpkins for Fall DIY Inspired

Paper Craft Pumpkins for Fall

How to Make Paper Pumpkins

 

Use them to decorate for Halloween or Thanksgiving.  You can play around with the sizes, colors, and patterns.  Group a few together at a kid’s table, adult’s dinner table, or on your fireplace mantel.

Update: After some feedback, I made a new tutorial for a similar project for Christmas. This tutorial may help with more detailed explanation using the same technique: How to Make Paper Christmas Ornaments

 

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Here is another fun paper craft on how to make hyacinth paper flowers. You can see the full tutorial here: Curled Hyacinth Paper Flowers

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80 Comments

    1. So glad you like them, Alison! I DID realize however that I shaped the pumpkin leaf incorrectly. I should have googled it first so they looks less like oranges! Ha!

      Reply

  4. These are so cute! I have a die for my die cut machine that makes those rosettes. I am going to have to try to make some of these this fall. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

  15. Can you please show me a video of you making these as we have been trying for two hours and the shorter strips are not going together. We needed them for Saturday for girl scouts. Thank you

    Reply

      2. Hi. Yes the 11 inch worked fine but when we folded the 9’s and 7 we couldn’t get them in a circle. They gave us construction paper could this be the problem?

        Reply

      3. Hi again. I just read the instructions above again. I don’t know why but on the instructions I had I didn’t remember seeing that you have to tape two 7inch strips together. I will pass this on to the leader

        Reply

  16. hi there. ive been trying this for table decorations at our thanksgiving feast amd the inch part s really getting to me! it is so hard for me haha
    anyways if theres any tips that would be awesome! thanks a bunch-vanessa

    Reply

  18. This is such a cute craft! I just tested it out and found the whole “medallion” step quite confusing. A video or more explicit instructions on that part would be very helpful!

    Reply

    1. Hi Paula, thank you! Once you have the two pieces of paper together, you now have a circle. Gently bring the center together by pushing down (it doesn’t matter which side you push). It will naturally form the medallion. With one hand hold the medallion together. With the other hand, dab hot glue in the center. Place the hot glue gun down and hold the medallion together with both hands for a few seconds until the hot glue dries. Viola! You have a medallion. I hope this helps!

      Reply

      1. Thanks for your clarification, Dinah! I figured out that I was making my accordian folds too large so the paper wasn’t wanting to naturally go into the medallion. Once I made the folds about 1 cm wide, everything came together much easier.

        Some recommendations I have for other teachers or group leaders planning to do this activity with children: 1. a second set of adult hands would really be helpful; 2. the hot glue takes a lot longer to dry than my students have patience to wait. I will have to glue AND hold the medallions until they dry. My students just don’t have the fine motor skills for this.

        Therefore, I’m going to do this activity over three days with my class. On Day 1, we will fold and tape all of the strips. After school, I will hot glue all of the medallions. On Day 2, we will assemble all of the pieces together into the pumpkins. I will apply the hot glue and the students can hold the pieces together until they dry. On Day 3, we will add stems and leaves, which I will glue and let the students hold together until dry. I’m very excited to do this cute craft with my class. I know they are going to love it!

        Reply

  19. This is missing lots of information to make these. The size that you suggest for cutting the strips doesn’t not lend its self to being pushed down to form the medallion. You should make a video so that I am convinced that this can be done…because hot glue gun burns latter and I have a big mess…..no pumpkins. Make a video!!! Please

    Reply

    1. Hi Brooke! So sorry you are having trouble. I’ve made many of these and the instructions should work. Maybe you can explain in detail what trouble you are having and I can try to help? Let me know!

      Reply

  20. Super cute dinah! I have to get ready for fall, so your tutorial found me at the right time! I wonder if i could get my kids involved…. – maybe they could draw on the paper before using it? What do you think!

    Reply

    1. Hi Adri! Awesome! Depending on the age of your kids, I think they would be able to make their own! Drawing or coloring the paper would be fun too!

      Reply

    1. Hey Erica, Thanks for the feedback. I encourage both positive and negative so that I can make sure this post is clear and easy to do. What are you having problems with? Maybe I can help. Let me know.

      Reply

    2. Mine are too, Nikki. I find that the medallions don’t stack well, and the final product looks more like a pineapple.

      Reply

  25. I cut all my strips to the measurements you gave. I was unable to make the 9″ and 7″ strips into the medallion forms. My tape either broke away or I was unable to flatten. Looks more like a teepee. I followed all instructions. Just wondering what I was missing.

    Reply

  26. This was not an easy project. The medallion instructions are not clear. My granddaughter & I gave up. I’m glad we used scrap paper. They are cute like you have them but just didn’t come together like your instructions–maybe a video would have been better. Thank you though.

    Reply

  27. These are so cute. I included a link in my post about Autumn Activities for Kids. My kiddos will love making them for their bedrooms and around the house. Thank you!

    Reply

  28. These are cute, but I had some similar problems to other commenters. Mine ended up looking more like apples or pineapples as the different length circles didn’t result in different widths once turned into medallions. On my third one I decided to cut the 7 inch strips into only about an inch width, and the 9 inch strips into only about 1.25 inch width. That helped make it have a slightly more pumpkin-y shape, but then I didn’t push the layers together enough and it still looks too tall, ha. Love this idea, but maybe I need more craft practice. I’m also very impressed and envious of your hot glue skills – you can definitely see all of my hot glue drops 😉 Maybe it’s because my hot glue gun is from the dollar store? Or maybe it’s just me! Anyway, thanks for the craft idea!

    Reply

  29. When I accordion fold, the folds seem to go off to one side, not lining up by the end of the strip. I’m trying to do them as evenly as possible.

    Reply

  30. It is impossible to push the 7×1.5 strip into an a medallion
    I trimmed a bit off and it worked but still looks too small on top.
    I’ll try an 8×1.25” strip

    Reply

  32. Easy to follow directions! Thank you 4 taking the time to share these paper pumpkins. I tweaked the measurements a little bit so i have about 3 different sizes. They came out so adorable! My 4 yr old wants me to make enough for a paper pumpkin patch! We numbered the bottom of each pumpkin 1 – 10 ( 2 times so you have 20 all together) now we have a match/ memory game, who ever has the most pairs wins candy! This entertained my daughter 4 the entire day/ eve she couldnt wait 2 show her Daddy. We had Lots of fun! Again THANK YOU 4 SHARING!

    Reply

  34. These are adorable! Sure wish I was crafty! Hubby and I spent more than hour trying this craft a few times. We laughed and were proud of us old folks for trying but no pumpkins. Yours are so cute :0)

    Reply

  35. Since each strip is 1.5 inches, the resulting circles will all be 3 inches in diameter; you cannot get a circular pumpkin. Like my Granddaughter said, it looks more like an orange banana.
    You need to make the longest strips wider than the shorter ones:
    7″ x 1.0″
    9″ x 1.5″
    11″ x 2.5″
    11″ x 2.5″
    9″ x 1.0″
    That fits nicely on a standard 8.5 x 11 piece of paper.
    Thanks,
    Nathanael (aka Bompa)

    Reply

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