Cardboard inner tube crafts, mini pumpkins!
Hey, notice the orangy, round vegetables popping up in our supermarkets or corner shops?
Yes it’s pumpkin season, also reminding us that Halloween is back!!!
Later on I am going to show you a Pumpkin project for kids, that is quite simple and easy to make and you only need very few resources.
A wave of orange balls, telling us now Autumn in once again upon us, the change of Summer to the Autumn season.
As the days are getting shorterand darker earlier, with a chill in the air.
Our heavier coats are pulled out of our wardrobes, woolly jumpers, scarves, hats and gloves and all.
This humble orange vegetable not only stands alone in it’s glowing pride that makes a super base to carve out images, for Halloween, but is also very nutritional!
Did you know that a pumpkin is high in vitamin A, beta carotene, vitamin C, leutin, vitamin E, iron copper, potassium, high in fibre and over 90% water!
A perfect source for eye nutrition, like the carrot known for its source of vitamin A. Anything in bright colours especially ‘orange’ is regarded as a prime dietry addition to your well being,
Pumpkins are high in fibre and great tasting too, used in a variety of delicious mouth watering recipes, like Pumpkin soup, Pumpkin pie and cakes, muffins, lattes and smoothies.
A superfood that provides excellent supplement for the health of your eyes, not forgetting the pumpkin seeds within it, that can be removed, cleaned up, roasted and made into yummy snacks full of protein, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, biotin and zinc a natural health boost!
Before we move on to our Pumpkin project for kids! let’s find out a little bit more about pumpkins and why they are so popular over this time of the year!
So let’s move on to the ‘Pumpkin project for kids! I mentioned in a previous post on how you can convert a simple toilet innertube into an functional robotic arm and the name of this method or construction is called a ‘Torus’
You can jump back into that post here to remind you. I mentioned that I liked this technique and would use it again some how or another and here we are again.
This time I am going to use this technique to make a Pumpkin! Ooooh you may ask what? how? will this work?
Simple, all you will need is one cardboard tube, some paint and tape. That’s it at least three resources.
So let’s move on…..
RESOURCES!
1 cardboard inner tube (kitchen towel)
Yellow and orange acrylic paints.
Large scissors.
Brushes.
Masking tape.
Glue stick (if you need to bond seperating sections)
Tape measure/Ruler.
Aren’t they cute and pretty straight forward don’t you think? This is another way of making a Pumpkin.
A cardboard Pumpkin, no need to hunt around for orange paper, as in this project you just need a tube and some paint.
If you get stuck, check out the video that features how to make the ‘Torus’ the spiral technique, in a previous post, ‘Recycled Robot for kids!’ to remind you and you are good to go!
Hold on to your kitchen paper towel tubes, which are longer and slightly wider, collect your finished toilet paper inner tubes and viola you are half way there, for your ‘Pumpkin project for kids!’
So you may ask, why would we need to make mini Pumpkins? well why not!
It’s the in thing at the moment and they are great to make as an additional project, to decorate, or to adorn your window sill.
You could even pop some treats inside the Pumpkins, if you like as they are like a cage and can hold one or two goodies as long they are small enough to fit within and large enough to not fall out.
I don’t feature treats in the opening pictures above, as this would distract you from the main thing.
SOME TIPS!
- Cutting the tube in ten sections is about right, cutting more would make it more stringy and would look more like an exploding spider, cutting less sections would be too gappy. I found ten sections to be just right.
- You may need disposable gloves, as it can get quite messy handling the Pumpkin turning it whilst you colour it up.
- Allow the paint to dry, as this will harden up the cardboard and the sections.
- Experiment with colour and make up your own take on colour. Make sure you get right inside the pumpkin and cover all parts.
- Have a handy glue stick, as the cardboard tube can seperate and will need to be stuck together again.
- You can use tea-lights, they look like little candles, but the fake version, if you can fit them inside the centre of the pumpkin.
- You could paint a face on the Pumpkins using a black felt tip pen, or cut up black paper into triangular shapes and stick them onto the Pumpkin instead.
So let’s talk about the real Pumpkins!
RECYCLE YOUR PUMPKIN!
So what do you do with your Pumplin after Halloween? the usual thing is to either put it into a compost heap, or chuck it out as part of your food recycling.
Stop! you can recycle your Pumpkin in a good way, not only to carve out a face, but to eat the pumpkins seeds, once prepared and roasted and to use the fleshy part to make Pumpkin pie!
I came across this great video that high-lights 3 ways to make good use of your Pumpkin with no waste, a great way to recycle this simple vegetable, that shows how versatile it can be.
Showlng you ways to extract parts of the Pumpkin whilst you are preparing it for Halloween, how to prepare and cook it, which is very nutitional and tasty too!
Click on the title on video (Halloween Pumpkin Waste) to find out more on the list of ingredients and method for Pumpkin pie filling! and don’t forget to come back!
I bet you didn’t think that you could do all that with your Pumpkin, let alone eat your handycraft!
There are many variations of what type of ingredients you can use in making the filling for your pie and of course you can tweak it up or down accordingly by changing the ingredients to suit your diet.
Some recepies include, eggs, evaportated milk or condensed milk. I prefer to use less of the sweet stuff, so to get a more natural flavour of the Pumpkin.
In the past I have been guity of carving out a goulish face, scooping out the insides, including the seeds, to make room for the small candle, but never thought you could actually eat it!
So now you have no excuse whilst preparing your Pumpkin for Halloween, you can save all the goodies to cook up later!
I am now looking for a pumpkin to give this a go. Originally I was thinking of just making a Pumpkin pie, but this is even better by using the whole Pumpkin, no waste. If I am successful I will update you on the outcome!
TO CONCLUDE!
I have shown you how you can take simple throw-outs like the inner cardboard tubes of kitchen towels or toilet rolls and convert them into little Pumpkins.
In this project you only need a few resources, scissors, paint and sticky tape and you are done!
I re-use a technique that helps shape the tube, into a circular spiral that would give you an instant round form and with your added mix of colours, you can magic up these cute little Pumpkins!
So don’t forget the Pumpkin project for kids and start saving your inner tubes!
UPDATE!
I managed to make the Pumpkin pie, as demoed above in the video and here it is :-
This is the first time I got to make Pumpkin pie and it came out exactly as described. I added fresh cream as a final touch,
It needed to set overnight in the fridge, as the filling is like a blancmange. I found the taste to be very flavoursome! and very pungent!
Pumpkin in itself really has no flavour as such, as I had a taste whilst raw and baked and it was quite bland, so by adding all those spices it knocked it up a bit,….. well more like an explosion in your mouth!
It is a very unusual flavour, an aquired taste, but worth giving it a go. My recommendation is to tame the amount of spices you add.
For me less is more. I did find the nutmeg to be a little bit overwhelming, but hey you may like that and also maybe tone down on the sugar.
Try to make it kid friendly, so instead of half teaspoon of each spice to go with quarter teaspoon.
MY FINAL THOUGHTS!
I do feel based on the very strong flavour, that this type of pie is more geared towards adults.
Pumpkin pie, is a traditon that ties in neatly with Halloween and for those like minded, I applaude them for making the best of a vegetable that is otherwise often disgarded after it’s use.
As a Londoner, I have heard of Pumpkin pie, but have never seen or tasted it before now and it’s always been more about what Americans make during Halloween and what I have read about in childrens stories.
So there you have it, curiosity took the better of me and as I had featured it in this post, I felt that this was a perfect opportunity to bake it for myself and try it out on my family and I got a thumbs up,
I would like to hear your take on Pumpkin pie and if you make it during this time of the year.