If your toddler is anything like my toddler, the very thought of carving a pumpkin this year probably has you rather frightened. Of course, picking out pumpkins with toddlers is a lot of fun so there is bound to be at least one pumpkin at your house. Here are a few no – carve pumpkin decorating ideas for you and your little ones so you can add some festive fall fun to your home without having to try in vain to explain the details of why Mommy can use a knife to cut a pumpkin and Junior can’t as Junior writhes on the kitchen floor in a screaming rage.
Fortunately, I do not know anything about that because I realized that that would be the likely outcome last year, and we went with a no – carve solution. We bought a bunch of stickers and Dylan had fun sticking them all over the pumpkin until it was a crazy multi layered ball of stickers. This year, we have two pumpkins and a handful of ornamental gourds. I am not sure what we are going to do for decorating them yet, so in writing this I hope to inspire myself as well as all of you.
Stick on rhinestones can take a plain old pumpkin and make it into something special in minutes. You can make a fun or fancy pattern with yours, and let the kids go wild as they make a jeweled creation all their own. A fun variation on using stickers to decorate your pumpkin is to use decorative tape. Scotch sells decorative tape, and there are some cool patterned duct tapes out there too. Make some stripes, or perhaps even a plaid pattern. Looking for a spooky design? Use masking tape to wrap your pumpkin like a mummy and leave a space to draw in some eyes and maybe a mouth.
If you want to make a sculpture out of pumpkins by attacking a few together out in the yard, try making a spider or a snowman. These themes lend themselves well to being trimmed with sticks for legs (spider) and arms (snowman) and some simple drawn on facial features and decorations. Markers and paint are other easy ideas, but you may want to use washable ones for easy clean up and keep the finished creations indoors.
Decorating pumpkins with toddlers can be fun, if you keep it simple. What kinds of fun pumpkins will you have at your house this year?
Photo by grafixar on morguefile.com.