inspired ideas

Jack-o-Lantern Garland

A project by inspiredfriend Lilli Beck

This is a cardboard-cutting technique that you can use with any image. It is simple, but can look very sophisticated and professional if you are careful with the details.

Supplies

• Paper printout of Jack-o’-Lanterns (provided below)


• Cardboard large enough to accommodate images. You can use cardboard as thin as your cereal box, or thicker if your scissors are up to the challenge. Thicker cardboard looks more professional, but is harder to cut.


• Glue stick


• Strong sharp scissors that can tackle your cardboard. Try them out on a scrap piece of your chosen cardboard and if it’s too hard to cut, either choose thinner cardboard or borrow sharper scissors from a friend


• Permanent black magic marker


• Ribbon (or string or cord) to string up the cutouts.


• 6 stickers with a wide surface area for adhering your string to the back of the cardboard. The stickers should exceed the width of your ribbon by at least ¼” on either side. Or you can use tape.


• Black paint or a juicy permanent black magic marker for coloring the back of the cardboard


• Orange glitter, green glitter (optional)
  

Instructions
Print one color copy of the Jack-o’-Lantern page onto 8 ½” x 11” paper (click image for larger version)

Cutting
Cut around individual pumpkin images, leaving some white (1/8” or more) showing around the edges. I did it in two steps: Fig. 1…cutting just enough to separate the pumpkins and get rid of all that white paper near the top of
Fig. 2…more contoured cutting, which is easier when you only have one pumpkin image in your hand instead of a whole page. Make sure you leave at least 1/8” of white all the way around the pumpkin

Gluing
Fig.3…Place a pumpkin on the cardboard and trace around it with pencil, being careful not to let the pencil come up and over the image. Do this for all of the pumpkins, keeping track of which one goes where.

Fig.4…I placed the pumpkins on my table above the cardboard, in the same configuration as the circles I drew in pencil

Fig.5…Apply glue stick to cardboard within the circular outlines that you drew
Fig.6…Place the corresponding pumpkin on top of the glue, and……
Fig.7…Press the image down with a hand or two, for about 15 seconds. The warmth of your hands will help bond paper to cardboard.

Adhere all of the pumpkins in this manner and let them dry for 10-15min. If the glue hasn’t dried by the time you begin cutting, the images will slide around as your scissors make contact

Cutting (again)

Fig.8…Once the pumpkins have dried, cut them apart from each other

Fig.9…Contour-cut around each pumpkin, leaving some white (1/8” or less). I do this so I won’t have too much bulky cardboard to manipulate while I’m trying to make detail cuts. By now you are experiencing how important it is to have strong sharp scissors.

Cutting detail

Fig.10-11…cut outside edge of black line. Wherever there is a sharp bend, consider cutting the excess cardboard away rather than turning the scissors

Fig.12…Near the pumpkin stem there is a deep inward corner, which you can tackle by cutting first from one direction, and then from another direction. You may prefer to try smaller sharp pointy scissors for this, or a pointy craft knife on a plastic cutting mat.

Fig.13…Here’s how it looks after I’ve cut all the way around. Don’t worry if you miss and there are teeny bits of white, because we can cover those with magic marker in the next step.

Black Marker

Fig.14…Carefully go around the pumpkin outline from the front, to cover up any little bits of white, and to blacken the side of the white paper. It would be very easy for the marker to slide onto the pumpkin image at this point, so go slowly

Fig 15…Color the side of the cardboard with black marker. Again, be careful ( I speak from experience!)

Fig 16-17 (optional)…Color the back of your cutouts with either black marker or black paint. Start your strokes from the middle and go toward the edges, to avoid the marker or brush slipping over to the front of the image. If you use paint, apply thinly so it doesn’t take long to dry. But use a paint that isn’t very wet otherwise it might wrinkle the cardboard.

Assembly
Fig.18…Once the marker or paint have dried completely, lay the pumpkins out on your table in whatever order you would like. Leave 2 ½” of space between them. If you would like to be able to tie a bow at each end as I have, make sure you have enough ribbon at the ends to do so.
Fig.19…Turn them over in place so their backsides are facing up. Double-check that they have the correct amount of space between them. Lay your ribbon or string across the cutouts. Because you want the pumpkins to hang nicely without flipping over, you’ll want the ribbon/string to be slightly above the center of the cardboard. But you need to leave almost an inch above the top of your ribbon in order for the sticker to do its job.
Fig.20…Place a large-ish sticker over your ribbon. The sticker area that is above the ribbon (closer to the top of the pumpkin) will be doing most of the work of securing the ribbon, so you should have as much sticker surface as possible. Alternatively, you can use tape. If you have any doubts about whether the ribbon will stay on, use more tape.
Fig.21…Apply glitter to the front image where desired. I used orange glitter glue for the pumpkin shell, and green glitter for the pumpkin stem. Leave to dry thoroughly: overnight might be enough.

Enjoy using this technique with other images ...