We had a pumpkin-decorating contest at work so I thought I would bring it home to the kids. Kids have such great imaginations. They have no problem coming up with ideas for this craft, but if you need to, head to Pinterest or an image search for pumpkin painting ideas. There's no shortage of great pictures. You can also print out some images and cut them up to be stencils. It'll help with kids who may get upset their pictures aren't coming out like they want them.
This craft is also handy if you're not in the mood to carve pumpkins this year. Somehow, I think I'll still have to do that too, though.
For materials, you'll of course need pumpkins. Any size will do. We went with the little hand-held pumpkins. If you get an idea of what pictures everyone wants to paint, get some acrylic paint in the colors you need and a variety of paintbrushes. We used the basic brushes in different sizes and some foam brushes. The kids can play with them and see what different kinds of effects they make.
Have plenty of paper towels and water cups around to clean brushes in between colors. Cover the area if you want to protect the table. The kids will still probably get paint on it, but, at least, it's manageable.
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I found a nice picture of a sunset with witches flying. I had some glitter spray in orange and purple. It gave it a nice little boost. My daughter found some lime green paint and went with a cute Frankenstein face and my son wanted to use the blacklight paint to surround this year's obsession, ghosts.
Make sure to have a plan for the designs. It is better to start with lighter colors first. It can be difficult to go over black with a lighter color. A little goes a long way. This is something I have to keep reminding them. More paint takes longer to dry. They can always add another coat.
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I'll make these as long as the kids will let me. It's so much fun to work on these while we have a spooky movie playing in the background. We used our Halloween Jar to pick the movie.
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