I love the fall! I love the cooler weather and wearing flannel shirts and boots and visiting pumpkin patches and the fact that all the weeds in my giant yard finally stop growing. Bring it on! I love jack-o-lanterns, too, but with two very small children in the house, I’m not quite ready to let them loose with the carving tools. I did this painting pumpkin craft a couple of years ago with my then 18-month-old, and it’s perfect. Just the right amount of effort and mess, not too much skill needed, and produces a really great result that your kids actually helped create. The painted pumpkins last so much longer than carved ones, too, so you can have these out on your doorstep for weeks before they start looking soggy and sad.
Painted Pumpkin Steps:
- Obtain some pumpkins! We like to visit U-Pick Barn or New Sweden Farms for our pumpkins, but those can be pricey (you’re paying for the experience!) so grocery store ones are just fine. Check out our Guide to Pumpkin Patches for more ideas.
- Paint them white. I used leftover house primer for this and didn’t involve the kids in this part. Old cardboard boxes on the floor make a perfect work surface.
- Let the kids loose with paint! Since my son likes to mix every color into brown, I only gave him red, orange, and yellow to play with. He started well with a foam brush, but ended up using his hands and really enjoyed the sensation of rubbing it all over the pumpkins (and his face!). Make sure they have old clothes on and that you are prepared with somewhere to put the paint-covered-pumpkins once they’re ready to dry.
4. Once dry, use black acrylic paint to paint on the faces! I did an image search for “pumpkin face template” and found a bazillion options to copy onto the pumpkin – have the kids choose which ones they want! Here is one link to some great options: Pumpkin Templates Draw or trace it onto the pumpkin first. You could even use a black permanent marker instead of paint.
5. Enjoy your fabulous pumpkins!
