This project is incredibly simple to make and you can make a bunch of them for just a few dollars. Pick up a package of brown paper lunch bags, and you can make more pumpkins than you know what to do with. You will also need some newspaper or plastic grocery bags, some craft paint, string, construction paper, and glue.
*Never leave children unattended with plastic bags.
Start by crumpling up a lunch bag. Smooth it back out then paint it orange. When dry, add some rough vertical stripes if you like, to help simulate the sections of a pumpkin. Stuff the bag with crumbled newspaper or bunched up grocery bags. Fill it almost to the top but leave a couple inches empty. Twist the top and tie it tightly with string. This will be your stem. Paint the stem green if desired.
Squish the filled bag until you make a round shape that looks like a pumpkin. Cut out some leaves from green construction paper and glue them to the stem or hang them from the string.
If you want a jack-o-lantern instead of a plain pumpkin, make a face with black paint, markers, or construction paper. Just cut out or color triangles for eyes and nose and then make a big happy smile.
You can make a really cute autumn-scape or Halloween/Harvest Day decorations with some scattered hay or raffia and a bunch of these paper pumpkins. Then, make a couple of bigger ones from paper grocery sacks to add to you display, following the same directions are above.
Add some tiny pumpkins made by crumbling up newspaper and painting it orange, and you’ll have an entire pumpkin patch! Pick up some artificial autumn leaves, or use some that you dried as suggested previously, and add them to your design.