Paper Thanksgiving Dinner

SUPPLIES & TOOLS:

• Decorative paper and cardstock


• Hot glue gun + glue sticks


• Newsprint/lightweight paper


• Masking tape


• (optional) hole punch, twine


• (Optional) paper towel or toilet paper roll, Cricut Machine

Corn on the Cob

DIRECTIONS:

1. Create a cylindrical base for your corn on the cob by either cutting a paper towel/TP roll to size OR using cardstock to form a tube. If using cardstock, seal the two ends of the paper with hot glue. Leave the ends of the cylinder open for now.


2. Pick what color(s) decorative paper you’d like to use for your kernels - This can be all the same yellow hue or a variety of patterned/colored papers based on the type of corn you would like to make.


3. Cut the paper to the same length of the cylindrical base. Then cut the width of the paper strips to about 1.5". Each of these strips of paper will become one row of corn kernels.


4. Once you have cut your paper into strips you will make slices approximately every 1/4" along the width of the paper while leaving 1/4" excess along the length of the paper so that all the kernels remain attached to the strip.


5. Line up the length of the strip with a small cylindrical object such as a pencil or glue stick. Roll the strip with the glue stick so that the paper starts to become rounded.


6. Adhere the two ends of the strip with hot glue and cut off any excess to form a full row on kernels.


7. Glue this row of kernels lengthwise to the paper cylinder and repeat all steps until the circumference of the base is covered.



8. Trace each of the open ends of the tube including the kernels of the corn onto the paper you would like to use as the end caps. Cut out that shape and use hot glue to adhere it to each end of the cob. Optional: Create the illusion of melted butter by placing the corn on top of an amoeba shaped light yellow paper. Add more detail to the ends of the corn by placing a few different hues of yellow and cream to imitate the layers of a cob.

DIRECTIONS:

1. Choose an inspiration recipe for your stuffing as this will help you make a realistic stuffing based on what ingredients make it up. The stuffing I chose has bread, red onion, celery, and a variety of spices.


2. Pick what color(s) decorative paper you’d like to use for each of your ingredients - tip: For ingredients that are a bit on the bland color side consider using a few color combinations or patterned paper.


3. Make a pattern for each ingredient. I find it easiest to start with a simple shape like a cube pattern to understand how these fold to form a 3D shape, and alter it to fit your needs. Do not glue your shapes together until later.


4. Not all items need to be 3 dimensional. For example you can cut up green paper to resemble rosemary or a garnish. The amount you will need will depend on the size of the casserole dish/plateware you select.


5. Once you have experimented with your shapes to form one of each ingredient you can duplicate these patterns with your Cricut machine or cut out by hand. Tip: the scoring tool for the Cricut machine is great if you want crisp edges on your shapes.


6. After your base shapes are cut out you can glue each piece together and add it to your dish.


7. Give all the ingredients a good mix and sprinkle your garnish paper on top to complete the dish.


8. Tip: Cover the bottom of your dish in a similar paper color to one of the main ingredients so that the dish appears fuller.

Turkey

DIRECTIONS:

1. Take your newsprint or lightweight paper and begin to crumple it to form the shape of a turkey. Use your masking tape to cinch in any areas you want to be tight. Begin to build your sculpture and layer on more paper and masking tape as needed so that it is firm to the touch. This will form the base of your paper turkey.


2. Once you are happy with the shape of your turkey cover the entire sculpture in masking tape - This will make a more uniform surface for your paper to adhere to. Tip: try to use long continuous pieces of tape wrapped around the shape instead of cutting the masking tape in small segments. This will mean there is less of likelihood of the edges of the tape curling away from the sculpture.


3. Choose a few different hues in the same color family (ex: a tan, a medium brown, and a dark brown) to represent different areas of a cooked turkey.


4. Rip each piece of paper into irregular shapes of varying sizes. You will be placing the pieces of paper around a curved surface so think of each piece as a mosaic tile - sometimes you will need large pieces and sometimes you will need smaller pieces to fill a space.


5. Begin on the underside of the turkey and start adhering your paper pieces to the masking tape body using hot glue. Make sure that each piece overlaps the previous ones so that no masking tape shows through.


6. Look at a reference photo to see what areas of a cooked turkey may have lighter coloring and which areas have darker coloring to determine where you want to place your colored paper pieces.


7. Once the entire body is covered in paper you can use a hole punch or scissors to create small accent pieces or spices for on top of the turkey. You can also use twine to mimic how some turkeys are displayed. Optional: If you are placing the turkey in a dish you can use spices or 3D objects such as those created for the stuffing to fill the space around the turkey.

Cranberry Sauce

DIRECTIONS:

1. Begin by selecting the colors of paper you want to use for the main cranberry sauce. The final product will be in the shape/mold similar to a Bundt cake so choosing 2-3 colors will help accentuate this design. Tip: 12"x 12" scrapbook paper or cardstock paper works well for this so that there is no waste.


2. Using the length of your paper cut strips that are thinner on one end and thicker at the other end. A good ratio to start with is 1/2" width at one end and 2" at the other. You can adjust these ratios based on how large you want the final piece.


3. Once you have about 30 total strips cut out lay your color pattern out in a circle on your tabletop with the thinner widths on the inside of the circle and the thicker widths on the outer edge of the circle. There should be a small hole in the middle of this so that the overall shape is similar to a donut


4. Place a dab of hot glue on the thinner end of the strips and begin overlapping the pieces. Repeat this for every strip so that the top strip covers about half of the width of the previous one and so on and so on. Eventually the end of the sequence will need to connect to the beginning so that a loop is formed.


5. Once the inner circle is glued together you will repeat the process on the thicker ends of the strips to for the outer circle. Do some experimenting and bend the paper to form the shape of a rounded cranberry sauce before you do any gluing. If you find your strips are too long feel free to trim them down. You may find that the outside strips over lap 1/4 of the previous strip instead of 1/2 and that is okay! Each piece is unique.


6. Once you have both the inner ring and the outer ring glued together you will need to adhere it to a presentation plate/bowl using hot glue. For a neater approach you can adhere strips to breach the gap underneath between inner and outer circle and adhere those strips to the presentation plate/bowl. This way the anchor points are not visible.


7. To add additional paper cranberries to the dish begin cutting small circles out of a variety of red papers. Make sure all the circles are the same size as each other. Then cut a line on the radius of each circle so that there is a slit about halfway through each circle. You will then take two circles and combine them together by the "slot sculpture" method - meaning insert the two slits into each other to form a 3D object. Optional: Make paper orange slices or other garnishes to add more visual interest.

Rolls

DIRECTIONS:

1. Take a 12"x 12" piece of cardstock and make a mark on one edge of the paper at the 5" and 7" measurement. Draw a line from the 5" mark to the adjacent corner of the paper and repeat this step for the 7" mark to the remaining corner of the paper.


2. Repeat this on several different shades of cardstock to create a variety of bread types.


3. Starting from the widest uncut end of the paper begin to roll towards the thinner end. A round object like a marker can help you begin the roll if needed. Each loop should be looser than the loop before so that there is a gap between each layer to create the correct shape.


4. When looking from above, there should be 4 distinct layers to each pastry so you may need to adjust the depth between layers to strike the right ratio before gluing the smallest end to the bottom of the roll.


5. To add more visual depth, you can choose a paint color that is slightly darker than your paper choice and add to the edges of each roll. Optional: Use paint or paper to create salt/pepper/sesame flakes to top your rolls.

Green Beans

DIRECTIONS:

1. Choose a style of green bean that you would like to create for your paper dish. For example - cut green beans will be easier to make because of their more simplistic shape. For the rest of this project I will be discussing how to replicate French green beans which tend to be a little longer and come to more of a point on each end.


2. Choose your colored paper and draw the above shape. Where there is a dashed line is where the paper will be folded. These are tabs that will glued to another piece to form a 3D shape. It may be good to practice on a scrap piece of paper to see how the joints fit together.


3. 3 of these shapes make up one green bean. Line up 3 of the shapes so that they are all face to the exact same way. Fold each of these shapes on the dotted line and one at a time adhere the folded tab to the next shape. You may need to wait a few seconds for the glue to dry in between steps.


4. You can choose to use different colors of paper for each segment or keep it all one color. For added efficiency you can create a file in Cricut to cut/score all the designs for you.


5. Repeat the steps above until you have the quantity you desire.


6. Give all the ingredients a good mix and present them in a dish.


7. Optional: Create lemon slices or garnish to add visual interest to the final product.

Pie slice

DIRECTIONS:

1. Choose a color for your crust and select a 12" x 12" piece of cardstock.


2. Draw a triangle approximately the size of a piece of pie. Do not cut this out just yet. Add a rectangle to the edge of the pie slice that would create the crust. Draw additional rectangular tabs to each of these edges so that they will add dimension to the final product.


3. Only cut out the exterior lines of your drawing. All interior lines will be lines that are folded. The tabs on either side of you pie triangle will be folded down to form a thicker pie crust. The rectangle at the base of the triangle will be folded up to mimic the side crust of the pie.


4. The rectangle attached to the side crust will be rounded in order to mimic the rounded edge of a pie crust. A round object like a pen/pencil can help with this.


5. Now that you have the crust done, select a color for your pie filling such as a burnt orange for a pumpkin pie filling.


6. Draw a triangle with the same dimensions as the original triangle for your pie crust.


7. Draw tabs to the side of this triangle that will be folded down and adhered to the base of your crust. The thickness of the pie should match the thickness of the rectangle that represents the side crust.


8. Again only cut out the exterior lines of your drawing. All interior lines will be folded.


9. Make sure the pie filling matches up with the pie crust shape and adhere and spots that connect. You will now have a finished pie piece that you can decorate with additional paper elements/spices Optional: Make whipped cream for the top of your pie by forming a spiral coil with cream paper.