YAH: Ribbon Pumpkin

I know I normally don't share Young-at-Heart crafts during the week, but I wanted to get this out before Thanksgiving. I've made paper ornaments many times, but it wasn't until I saw the same technique with ribbon on Crafty Moms Share that I thought, what a great idea! And Carrie made pumpkins out of the ribbon, so I couldn't wait to try something similar. I only had to buy three things -- orange wire ribbon, floral wire and cinnamon sticks.

I made this craft at night (just a couple hours ago, actually) so forgive my poor-lighting photos.

I started by cutting 3 pieces of equal-length ribbon. The length all depends on how big you want your pumpkin. I crossed the pieces of ribbon like so:

(Love the star in the middle!) I pushed a brass fastener through the center of the star. It was fairly easy to do. This was only to hold it in place until I was ready to attach my stem.

Then I gathered all the ends of the ribbon at the top and used another fastener to hold them together.

Since that side was messier, with all the ends of the ribbon, I decided to flip it over and put it on the bottom. Now it was time to find a way to attach my stem -- a cinnamon stick! I knew it would be too heavy to just put it through the hole as is, so my brilliant husband came up with the idea to use a piece of clear plastic. It would be hidden by the ribbon! So I cut a piece from the lid of a veggie tray, punched a hole in it, made a few slits so it would be bigger, and stuck the cinnamon stick through it!

I decided to use hot glue to keep it in place, just in case. I also cut part of the stick off so it wasn't so long.

(Those pictures of my fingers remind me of a comment one of my students said to me today. She said, "Why are you getting so old?" I asked, "How can you tell I'm old?" And she responded, "Your hands look old!" Oh boy...)
Anyway, I had to make the hole in the ribbon a little larger, to accommodate the cinnamon stick, so I used one end of a scissors and kind of wiggled it around. Then I added the stick.

Bet you can't even see the plastic, can ya? To secure it even more, I put some hot glue on the plastic and pressed it to the ribbon. Because the ribbon is sheer, the glue went through all the layers. But keep in mind, because the ribbon is sheer, you can easily burn yourself on the glue! Be careful!
Finally it was time to use the floral wire to add some tendrils. I wrapped one wire around the cinnamon stick a few times, then used another cinnamon stick to make the ends curly.

You could see some of the hot glue next to the stem, so to cover it up I grabbed a couple leaves from my pumpkin planter and glued them on.

I think it turned out great! I plan on giving this to my sister when I go to her house for Thanksgiving. I hope she likes it! (And I hope she's not reading this!)

And the best part is that it folds almost completely flat for storage!

I know she'll appreciate that!

Happy Thanksgiving!

**Linking up to Wow Me Wednesday and Bowdabra's Saturday Showcase!**