How to Make a Halloween Pumpkin Paper Basket

This is a great project that you can make with materials you probably already have lying around the house. It only costs a few cents to make, and will give you a very pretty Halloween decoration to amuse your trick or treaters, or simply to make your Halloween party more lively.

What You Will Need:

One sheet of heavy-duty pumpkin-orange construction paper, 9 inches square
One straight-edge ruler
One number 2 pencil with eraser
One pair of scissors
Invisible scotch tape
Colored pencils
Black Sharpie marker (optional)

Take your piece of orange construction paper, and mark it on the edge at three and six inches on all sides. Use these marks as a guide to fold it into thirds. Unfold it, then turn it in the other direction and again fold it in thirds. This will create nine small boxes on the construction paper. The center box will eventually become the bottom of the basket.

With the number 2 pencil, lightly draw a pumpkin design in each of the center boxes of the outside rows. Leave the corner boxes empty. Fill in the eyes, nose and mouth with a red pencil. Then go over this again with a very pale yellow pencil, over the top of the red pencil to create the impression of fire. Fill in the stem with green pencil. Use a lighter shade of green to cover up the orange of the paper. Don't hesitate to use multiple colors and thicknesses of pencil to achieve a more complex, shaded effect.

Use the black pencil or a black marker to mark the outline of the black ridges, and the outlines of the mouth, nose, eyes and stem. Carefully draw a tab approximately half an inch wide on the right side of each pumpkin. Then cut out the blank squares, taking care not to cut the tabs on the right of each pumpkin. Fold up the box, using the tabs to hold it together. Use the tape to attach each tab to the inside of the next pumpkin. Be sure to attach the tape to the inside of the box, not the outside. You can also add a handle to this basket very easily by simply cutting a strip of orange construction paper, and attaching it to the inside top of the basket.

Get the kids involved in this project. My youngest son really wanted to make his own Halloween pumpkin box when he saw me making mine. I set up the square and drew the basic pumpkin shapes for him, then allowed him to create his own pumpkin features. He wanted his pumpkins to express emotions like mad and sad. I suggested that he also create a crazy pumpkin and a silly pumpkin. Then I let him color his pumpkins, and helped him to cut them out.

When your pumpkin box is finished, fill it with pot pourri, candy or party favors. Or get creative, and think of your own ideas for what to use to fill up your cute Halloween pumpkin basket.