Supplies:
- Cardstock (65 lb is what I use) The card stock I am using today came from Joann Fabrics.
- Vellum paper. I purchased mine from Hobby lobby.
- Cement glue and Elmer’s glue. I purchased my cement glue from Target. Click the link the below to see which brand of cement glue I purchased.
- Kraft paper or cardstock or other material of your choice for the stem. I used kraft paper for mine. I also used this to cover my work surface when working with the cement glue
- One battery operated tea light or fairy lights. The link below is to the tea lights I purchased. They have a timer, which is very nice. I set them once and they come on at the same time every night.
- I used my Cricut Maker with the fine point blade and light blue mat. Other cutting machines will also work.
- My design which can be found in my library.
Please note in my pictures the blue side is the bottom or inside of my pumpkin. This will help you in knowing how to glue certain pieces.
I wanted to make a small pumpkin, but forgot to take into consideration my hole at the bottom where my tea light goes. So, my pumpkin is just a little too small for a tea light to fit in the bottom. For the pictures I used angles so you could not see the pumpkin was just sitting on top of the tea light. So, when you are figuring the size you want your pumpkin to be, please do not forget this measurement like I did.
When you open this file in Cricut design space or other locations the measurements/sizes will be altered. You will thus need to first size your pieces. I will be uploading a separate post explaining, with pictures, exactly how to upload a file and resize it. For my pumpkin I will list the sizes below that I used, but I recommend making each measurement at least 1 inch bigger, but feel free to make an even larger pumpkin. You will just need to adjust each piece according to the new size you pick. So, if the vellum paper is now 3 inches taller than my measurements, then you will also need to make the cardstock circle pieces and cardstock pumpkin side pieces each 3 inches taller than my measurement for these pieces.
Vellum paper: H – 4.181 W – 0.995 inches (the vellum paper only goes to the score lines on the cardstock paper side pieces. This is why they are slightly shorter)
Cardstock pumpkin sides: H – 4.729 W – 0.995 inches
Cardstock top and bottom circular pieces: H – 2.181 W – 2.181 inches
Depending how large you make your pumpkin you may need to hide some of the side panels and vellum pieces so they will fit on your mat. Just make sure you have 12 vellum pieces and 12 side panel pieces.
You will also need to ungroup everything so you can make the lines on the top and bottom of teach of the cardstock panels score lines instead of cut line.
Once all of your pieces are cut out it is time to assemble your pumpkin. I first dent the cardstock panels at the two score lines.
Now it is time to glue my vellum paper to the cardstock side panels. At first I just applied a few dots of Elmer’s glue to my cardstock panel, then placed the vellum paper on top. The glue and vellum paper should be applied to the back of the cardstock panel. This method did not seem to work very well. Not all of the cardstock was staying down/attached to the vellum paper. For my next attempt I applied more Elmer’s glue and took my plastic brush and smoothed the glue all over the cardstock panel in an even coat. This worked okay, but pieces of the cardstock around the leaf design still was not staying down. The Elmer’s glue also made the entire piece very ridged. There were also some gapping/bubbles along the edges.
At first I just did a few drops of Elmer’s glue 
Place vellum paper just above the bend/score line 
Bubbles with Elmer’s glue 
Applying Elmer’s glue more evenly 
still some bubbles with evenly spread Elmer’s glue
While I was out running some errands, I came across wrinkle free cement glue. So, I decided to give it a try. I recommend covering your work surface before working with this glue. This cement glue worked much better than the Elmer’s glue. Once it was dry I did not have the bubbling along the edges, and it was very flexible still. Elmer’s glue will work, but I recommend the cement glue if possible.
applying cement glue 
No bubbles with cement glue 
Left side is Elmer’s glue. Right side is cement glue
When placing the vellum paper on to the cardstock panel, you want to make sure you match up the wider vellum paper end with the wider cardstock end. You will also want to place the vellum paper in between the two folder score lines.
While the side panels and vellum paper glued and dried, I worked on my stem. For the stem I just cut a strip of kraft paper I had, but feel free to use other items you have on hand, like cardstock. I wrapped my strip of kraft paper into a tight coil and held it for a few seconds. I left the very end of the kraft paper unwrapped. This tale at the end will go through the slit the smaller circular pieces of cardstock has. This will secure it in place more. I then pressed my pinky finger through the coiled kraft paper to make it pop out. I then took some Elmer’s glue and applied it in random spots around my stem to help hold the shape. You may need to hold sections of the stem for a few seconds as the glue dries.
Next, place a small amount of glue (I used Elmer’s glue) on the smaller flap of the side panel. Place the small flap on one of the edges around the smaller circle piece with the slit in the middle. Hold piece in place a few seconds while glue dries. You could also use small clamps to hold things in place. In some of my pictures you will see I used some pink ones I got from Dollar Tree. Continue to place all 12 side panels along the small edge of the small circular piece. I placed mine on the bottom of the circular piece.
inside of pumpkin 
outside of pumpkin
In order to give your pumpkin a rounded shape you will need some smaller supports to help pull it down. For this I used a paper cutter to cute 4 strips of white cardstock. For my pumpkin my strips were about 3 inches long. Yours may be different if you make a larger pumpkin or depending how rounded or long you want your pumpkin to be. To find this measurement for my pumpkin I shaped my pumpkin to my linking and measured roughly how tall it was. Just remember to leave a little extra room so you can fold the top and bottom of the strips to attach them to the pumpkin. I made my strips about 0.5 inches thick.
Once these 4 strips were cut out, I made a small bend in the top and the bottom. This bend is where you will apply the glue and attach the strips to the pumpkin. Place these strips evenly around your pumpkin and hold them for a few seconds to allow the glue to dry. Once these are in place, slide your pumpkin stem threw the small slit at the top and fold over the end and glue it down. Now, glue the second small circular piece over first one. This is not necessary, but it just makes the inside piece look cleaner.
Once everything is glued down and dry you can move onto gluing the bottom of the pumpkin. Glue the side panels along with the white strips to the bigger circular piece with the hole in the middle. Once all these places are in place and secure you can glue the second larger circular piece over the first one to cover up the glued tabs and make it look cleaner.
The last step is to glue your leaf into place and place a tea light or fairy lights inside your pumpkin. The hole at the bottom is for the tea light or fairy lights to be inserted into the pumpkin. Since I made a very small pumpkin my tea light does not fit into this hole, and I will need to use fairy lights for my pumpkin.
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