If you’re looking for a way to enjoy Halloween decorating without digging cold, slimy pumpkin guts out from under your fingernails, welcome to the no-carve zone! Trade sharp knives and gooey seeds for paintbrushes and markers and let the kids unleash total creative freedom while you skip the post-craft cleanup headache.

You Will Need:

Medium and Mini Pumpkins
Craft Mats or Disposable Table Cloths
Non-Toxic Acrylic Paints
Paintbrushes
Sharpies
Paint Pens
Craft Supplies: Craft glue or hot glue (adult supervision required), glitter, cotton balls, googly eyes, cardstock, felt scraps, styrofoam balls, and so on.

What to Do:

1. Protect the Work Surface:
Use craft mats or disposable table cloths to protect the work surface.

2. Prep the Canvas:
Wipe down all pumpkins with a damp cloth to remove any dirt or wax, then let them dry completely so the paint and glue adhere easily.

3. Decorate the Pumpkins:
Gather the crafts supplies and let the kids paint and color the pumpkin.

Here are some of the ideas we made:

Mini Emoji Pumpkins:
Paint mini pumpkins yellow and use black and blue Sharpies to draw expressions and asserted on the faces like sunglasses, tears of joy, and winks. Use white paint to make white teeth and whites of eyes of the emojis.

Elmo & Cookie Monster:
Paint one pumpkin solid red and another solid blue. I cut round styrofoam balls in half and used black markers to make pupils for the eyes. But you can use white cardstock or plastic eyes and draw on black pupils instead. I also cut an oval styrofoam ball in half snd painted it red for Elmo’s nose. Draw the mouth with a black Sharpie. Make a cookie out of cardstock or felt and glue it to the Cookie Monster’s mouth.

Glitter Rainbow with Cotton Ball Clouds:
Paint a bold, multi-colored rainbow arc across the front of an orange pumpkin. Sprinkle matching fine glitter over the wet paint for extra shine, then glue tufts of cotton balls at the ends for fluffy clouds.

Unicorn:
Pick a pumpkin with a large stem to paint with stripes to make a unicorn horn. Use Sharpies or paint pens to draw a sweet sleeping unicorn, delicate floral crown, and cute features directly onto a smooth white pumpkin.

Minecraft Character:
Using a white pumpkin, draw square pixelated eyes, mouth, and boxy features using black Sharpies.

Striped & Block-Colored Pumpkins:
Some of the kids in my care just painted vertical stripes in freehand with bright alternating colors down the ridges of their pumpkins.

Photo by Stephanie Felzenberg

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