Even though these three simple projects aren’t quite spooky, they definitely are festive! Decorating gets crazy this time of year when you have to jump from Halloween to Thanksgiving and then Christmas, so I try to keep it simple. I’ll probably put away the accordion bats in November, but the pumpkins and dried Chinese lantern branches can definitely stay out. Our mantel is going to look so festive once I throw a bunch of these pumpkins on it. If you’re hosting a Halloween or fall party, orange honeycomb tissue balls in various sizes turned into pumpkins would look great on the tabletops.

You can now choose which of the 60g peach crepe papers you would like to have as your main flower colour, with the other peach shade acting as the accent colour.We can now apply the petals directly underneath the bottom of the fringed centre. Glue the small petals first, with a light layer of glue at the base. Place the first three small peach petals equally around the centre and then the next three in-between. Make sure you push each petal on firmly so that they don’t start to come away from the centre.

Step One: Tear a 5” – 6″ strip of crepe paper and place the foam ball in the center. Fold up the short sides, then twist the ends together. Add a dab of glue to hold the twist in place. Also available with the same spec – 17gsm, 40% stretch and colourfast – are Rainbow Crepe, Fluorescent Crepe, Safari Crepe and Crepe Streamers. I love how it kind of looks like a real dried Chinese Lantern branch. If you don’t have foam balls lying around, just roll up a little ball of tissue paper for the inside. To make the large lily, use template A and cut out six petals. Trim each in half lengthwise and apply all-purpose glue down one of the centre cut lines. Lay a length of hobby wire along the glue, then place the remaining half of the petal over the top, sandwiching the wire down the centre. You may need to re-cut the point of the petal.

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When the components are in place, push the inner hoop into the outer part. To have the flowers appear off-centre, twist the outer hoop until the screw part of the hoop is sitting at the top of the wreath. Tighten the screw to hold the flowers and leaves more firmly, then bend and adjust them to your liking. Make a double bow from hessian ribbon and fix it to the hoop with fine gauge wire. Tie a bow with a length of orange cord through the screw, then knot on a hanging loop. Candle ring Isn’t it surprisingly easy to make an accordion garland?! It takes some patience adding each layer, but now that I know how to make one, I want to try a couple more in some interesting shapes. Cut a rectangle of 180g orange crepe paper across the grain measuring 13 x 5cm (5 x 2in). Stretch fully between your fingers and cut out two pieces from the stamen template. Repeat again with the 180g yellow crepe paper and cut out one piece using the same template. Take each piece and fold over, then finely fringe in the direction of the grain, down two-thirds of the length of the paper. The finer you fringe, the better the flower will look. Oranges and other citrusy fruits are in season from October through June, which is why we always like to come up with citrus crafts for the fall and winter seasons. In the past we have crafted oranges out of paper, but we really wanted to do something with dried oranges this year. They are so pretty to decorate with and we love how Meagan used them in this dried orange crepe paper wreath.

To cover the base of the petals and the calyx, stretch a 1cm (0.4in) wide strip of 160g grass-green crepe paper and glue tightly around covering the base of the petals underneath the flower-head. Then bring this down on a 45-degree angle, applying a little glue as you go and continue down the wire stem. You can cut the length of the stem with wire cutters as well if you prefer a shorter flower. Wrap the stem tightly four or five times. Lay the three pieces down with the yellow piece in the centre and apply small dots of glue along the bottom uncut pieces to lightly secure the three pieces together. Twist the strands firmly together with your fingers to make the fringing even finer. To make the stamens, snip five 9cm lengths of wire. Trim small rectangles of orange crepe paper. Place the tip of the wire in the centre, fold the rectangle in half, then roll. Pinch the base of the paper, then wrap and wind the pinched area and hold down the wire with tape, forming one stamen. Make four more in the same way. Hold the five stamens together and wind tape around the base ends, connecting them together. Hold the stamens in the centre and place the six petals around them. When you are happy with the arrangement, wrap the base of the flower with tape and about halfway down the wires. Trim away four of the ends, then continue wrapping the tape around the single wire to the base.Make up the pom-pom flower centre by snipping a small circle of orange crepe paper. Lay a small piece of cotton wool at the top of a length of wire. Bend the wire over the wool and form into a ball shape. Place the orange circle over the ball, then twist the base to cover the ball. Wrap tape over the twisted area and halfway down the wire and set aside. Repeat to make a second flower. Step Two: Open up the honeycomb balls. Tear a piece of green crepe paper about 3” – 6” long for the pumpkin stem; tear different lengths to create different stem lengths. Twist the ends together and glue one end to the top center of your ball. Cut out pumpkin leaves and glue between an accordion layer near the top center. To add some looped stems, cut some wire about 5” – 8” in length, and wrap your stem-covered wire around a pencil a couple of times. Glue the wire near the top center of the ball. Remove the centre of an embroidery hoop. Attach the large lily onto the inner hoop by winding the wrapped wire around the wooden circle. Fix a leaf stem either side, then add the two pom-pom flowers beside the leaves. Secure the two smaller lilies, followed by the remaining leaf stems. Cup the petals individually very gently between your thumb and fingers in the top third and then gently stretch underneath the curve you’ve created very slightly to straighten the petal. If you are creating harsh marks in the paper when you curve it, then you are applying too much pressure. To make the calyx, take a piece of the green-tea doublette crepe paper and cut three of each of the calyx pieces. Cup each of these in the centre to give shape and apply a light layer of glue to the bottom of each one. Glue the three small round pieces evenly directly underneath the centre and then place the three longer calyxes in-between.

Pinch the base of the petal together, then wind over the pinched area and down the wire with tape. Repeat to make up six petals. Bend the wire within the petal into a curve and up again towards the point. Stretch out the centre slightly, then repeat on the edges near to the point of the petal to create a fluted effect. Once the pieces are dry, you can then open them out in the same way as the previous tutorial and make your leaf in the same way. Cut detail into all the small petals and five of the large petals (including the accent-colour petal) following the dotted guidelines on the templates. Round off any straight cut edges that you make with precision scissors. Make up several leaves on shorter lengths of wire, then attach them together in one continuous piece. When the garland is long enough to fit around the base of your candle, secure the two ends together with tape. Hair combTake one triangle of crepe paper from one square and the same corresponding triangle from the other square. You can save the remaining two pieces to make another leaf later if you need to. Follow the previous tutorial for gluing the two pieces together and then the remaining steps as well. Although make sure the colour that you would like your leaf to be is in the centre, with both sides that have the same colour touching when you glue them down.