We hear that this Spring/summer 2015 is all about Tropicana! Which make these juicy paper tropical fruit even more perfect : )
We were blown away by how much you love our paper fruit, they are popping up regularly on Instagram and we just love seeing what you do with them! Colorful decoration at home and for parties, pretend play, photo props, addition to a fab costume… the ideas are endless!
Well, we felt there definitely should be more of this paper fruit in the world, spreading happiness everywhere, so why not in a MASSIVE size! The bigger the fruitier! This super duper giant paper tropical fruit kit is the first in our Make Your Own Paper Sculpture series in our new brand Moon Picnic. Some of our most popular designs now come in a large scale, in premium heavyweight paper, often printed in special Pantone shades for that vibrant pop of color you need in life.
You can cut, fold and make massive paper sculptures from these posters and we can tell you, you will impress any guest who’s seen a lot already! ; ) Perfect for creating amazing party decoration (for both kids & grown ups!), entertaining and memorable photo props, unusual room decoration … ! Or how about making them as surprise presents for friends who just need giant paper things or for yourself, if you feel in need of hugging a large pineapple now & then!
You can find the first of our series Make Your Own Paper Sculpture – Giant Tropical Fruit in our shop.
We’ve also put together some useful tips and steps below! Worth checking out once you have your posters with you.
HOW TO MAKE GIANT TROPICAL FRUIT PAPER SCULPTURES
/ TOOLS /
Scissors, a bone folder or an empty ball point pen (do not use a sharp or fine tipped pen, a round end is good), a ruler, glue stick *
Note on glue: Good quality glue sticks work well. We find Pritt Sticks very sticky and reliable. Best not to use poor quality brands that dry too fast & don’t leave much stickiness on the paper.
/ STEPS /
1. Flatten the posters
The posters will arrive rolled up in a tube. So the first step is to flatten them. I know you may want to get on with cutting straight away but be patient! It really pays off to flatten the posters properly before you start. : )
Leave the posters flat with some books on top for a few hours (take care of the printed surfaces) . Once the posters are easier to handle take this additional step to really nail it! -> Gently roll it up in the reverse direction of the curl and leave it in the tube for 5 mins. Do this to each sheet one by one. This should make the posters almost completely flat, much easier to handle and ready to cut!
2. Cutting
Use large scissors and cut all of the outlines. Easy!
3. Scoring
Use a bone folder or an empty ball point pen and score all of the dotted lines. Do not use a sharp tipped pen.
4. Fold
Fold all of the scored lines. You just need to give gentle folds to each line by pressing lightly to form rough 3d shape. No need to press too hard.
They’ll look like these! (Pineapple is not showing in the photo)
5. Glue
Rub the glue stick liberally just on the tabs you’re gluing. Leave sticky thick layers on the paper before you press both sides together and hold until it dries. To reach small gaps (for example to mend a few gaps where the sheets didn’t stick completely) you can scrape some glue from the stick onto a piece of paper (use poster offcuts) and push in the glue between the sheets.
Below are our suggestions for the glueing order!
/ WATERMELON SLICE /
I recommend you trim the sharp ends of the green skin piece a teeny tiny bit so it fits more snuggly into the corner.
Start with one end and work around the curve as in the photo, matching each corner as you go.
/ WATERMELON PIECE /
Glue the sides of the pink shape first. Apply the glue liberally on the tabs and simply ‘close’ it with the triangle piece and hold.
/ PINEAPPLE /
Pretty straight forward! Just glue all of the tabs as you go around the shape.
/ PINEAPPLE TOP /
The pineapple top is on the third page with the banana and kiwi. Fold and glue as shown above and attach to the top of the pineapple body.
/ KIWI /
Kiwi is also straight forward. First glue the tabs all around to form a ‘bowl’ shape, then close the ‘lid’.
/ BANANA /
Glue the side tabs of the middle part (pink arrows) first.
Next, glue the two top pieces (marked pink)
Glue and close both ends – green stem & black end.
Ok, now apologies first, there’re a couple of minor things to tweak on this part, but they’re very simple! ^ ^ The green tab marked ‘glue’ (photo on the left above) is a little bit long. You’ll notice it if you’re trying to glue and close the end of the green stem. So just trim it shorter to close it up (photo on the right)
Also there’s an extra fold line printed on the side of the green stem (marked pink on the pic right). You’ll realise that this line doesn’t need folding so just ignore it!
Now you have a massive paper banana to GO tots BANANAS with!
We hope you have LOTS of fun with these! Please check out our new Moon Picnic IG Feed (as well as our MR P site feed) for our upcoming products. We can’t wait to see what you do with these!