I’ve made this craft two ways so that you can use it as an easy Halloween craft or if you’d prefer not to make a Jack O’Lantern I’ve done it just as a normal pumpkin so you can make this as an autumn, harvest or Thanksgiving craft. Go with whichever one your kids prefer!
Sponge Painted Pumpkin Craft
We loved trading in our paintbrushes for sponges to paint apples, so we decided to repeat the process and make a sponge painted pumpkin craft. We then turned our sponged painted pumpkin craft into a jack 0′ lantern.
With just a few basic supplies and easy to follow directions, this is an easy, inexpensive, and fun pumpkin craft for fall, Halloween or Thanksgiving.
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Supplies
- Paper plate
- Orange paint
- Sponge
- Brown paper
- Green pipe cleaner
- Black paper (if making a jack o’ lantern)
- Scissors
- Glue
Directions
To this prep this craft, start out by cutting a long piece from your sponge to act as the paintbrush. It helps to use sharp scissors for this.
1.Dab the sponge into the orange paint and then dab onto the paper plate until the plate is covered in orange paint. Allow to dry.
3. Cut a stem from the brown paper and blue to the back of the pumpkin craft. Cut a small piece from a green pipe cleaner and bed it so it resembles a pumpkin vine. Attach to the back of the pumpkin craft near the stem. (We added the pipe cleaner vine to the pumpkin, but removed it when making the jack 0′ lantern.
4. If you are making a jack 0′ lantern cut pieces for the face from the black paper and glue to the pumpkin craft.
Pumpkin Craft
This painted pumpkin craft is so easy to make and it’s one that’s really easily adaptable for different times of the year. The simple printing technique means that even toddlers and preschoolers can join in with the painting although if you choose to do this as a Halloween craft they will obviously need help with cutting out the shapes for the face.
Don’t fancy making a Halloween craft right now? No problem, just don’t do the final steps with the black paper or card.
Painting with Foil
Painting with foil is a fun activity for kids and a good way to change things up from using a paintbrush to paint with. Kitchen foil is also something that a lot of us have stashed in the back of a cupboard somewhere so teamed with our free template this makes this a pretty cheap activity to try out.
If this is your first time painting with foil why not encourage your child to scrunch the foil up into a ball themselves. What does it sound like? How does it feel?
Painting with foil is obviously a pretty hands on activity (no long bush keeping the hands away from paint) so make sure you have a wipe or damp cloth to hand afterwards to help clean up messy hands.
Free Pumpkin Template
Of course you can make this craft yourself by just drawing out the pumpkin shape but our printable means that you don’t need to worry about drawing and if you’re doing this activity with more than one child it can be really helpful to print something out rather than drawing the same thing again and again. Want the printable? Just grab our free pumpkin template.
Of course you can just grab the orange paint to make this craft but instead why not use red and yellow and use it as an excuse to look at colour mixing? As a good rule of thumb, start with the yellow and add a bit of red at a time as the red is darker.
