HalloweenAngel

Decorating pumpkins for the Halloween and Fall season is very achievable without all the mess and frustrations of carving. It is really difficult to make great designs in the tough outer skins of these fruits and easy to make a real mess of it.

Last year, we spent ages trying to create a simple scary face design into our pumpkin. It took ages and it didn’t look anything special when we were finally done. Plus our little girl was unable to join in with the activity.

There are lots of easier, quicker and also kid-safe alternatives for how to decorate pumpkins without carving them that the whole family can enjoy instead. I hope these ideas inspire you in creating something great.

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Why We Will be Decorating Pumpkins Without Carving Them This Year

Image Credit: Original image shared by Freestylers on Pixabay with a CC License

Creating a great design into a pumpkin really is not as easy as it looks. Even if you draw a design onto the skin of the fruit to work to, it’s tough to cut neatly and what seems like a five-minute job can wind up taking hours. Then you’ve got all the mess to clear away too.

The real decider for us was that our little girl was unable to join in because it’s dangerous so she was left out from one of the most crucial jobs of the season.

So, this Halloween, I went in search of ideas for an alternative method of decorating, a no-carve pumpkin method that the whole family can enjoy. I found lots of great ideas and I’m going to let my daughter choose her favorite one.

Pumpkin Decorating Kits No Carving Sets for Families and Kids

This year I’ve been investigating different ways to dress up this traditional Fall season fruit using methods that kids can take part in as well.

We all enjoy Toy Story and Mr Potato Head is a great character. I found these fantastic pumpkin decorating kits which allow kids and adults to make fun characters using the Fall fruit as a base to push the different plastic parts into.

These push ins look easy enough to do, and reviewers like them because they’re fun and reusable too which means they can be enjoyed every October. This could be a very good no-carve, no-mess option.

10 Ideas to Decorate Pumpkins Without Carving Them

1) Painting the Pumpkins: Let kids get messy and have fun painting a pumpkin outdoors. They can use a non-toxic poster paint or an acrylic paint if they’re a bit older.

2) Using Creative Glue Methods: There are tons of things you can glue to the fruit using a thick white liquid glue or a hot glue gun for adults. Glue on paper, tissue, foam, felt, fabric, buttons, ribbons, gems, yarn, leaves and more.

Buy this Custom Name Halloween Pumpkin Decal Sticker Set from TheVinylCompany on Etsy

3) Adding Some Sparkle with Glitter: Make the pumpkin sparkle by painting it with glue and covering with glitter. This is best done outdoors because trying to remove glitter in the home is not a fun job.

4) Choose a Spray Paint: With spray paint, you can easily make gold, silver, black or white pumpkins to suit the style you’re looking for. Spray paint is not kid-friendly and needs to be done outside. Experiment with masking off sections on the pumpkin using masking tape and thick paper and then spraying over the top.

5) Use a Decorative Stand for an Easy Approach: If you really want to spend the least amount of time decorating a pumpkin for Halloween then just buy a fun stand to hold it in.

You can get stands that make this fruit look like a spider, skeleton or something spooky and fun. This is the easiest no-carve idea of all! This must be the laziest approach to decorating . Just buy a fun, novelty stand like this spider one to hold your Fall fruit. How easy is that?

6) Use Decorative Washi Tape: Washi tapes come in a huge variety of colors and patterns. Stick these around a pumpkin to make it look bright and fun. Washi tapes can be bought in so many different color and pattern choices. They are easy to stick around the pumpkin and it is a relatively mess-free craft that children and adults can enjoy.

7) Adding Stickers or Transfers: Stickers are easy to pop on and that is something easy and with minimal mess that children can do. Transfers are harder to use but you can buy ones specifically to dress up pumpkins.

You can buy and apply special transfers like bat ones. They are a little challenging for younger kids to use and best applied by an adult. Stickers are better for children.

8) Apply Pretty Ribbons: Adults can hot glue colored and patterned ribbons on. This method looks nice when the ribbons are applied from top to bottom of the fruit, leaving some gaps for the bright orange flesh to show through.

9) Modern Melted Crayon Art: Yes you can create melted crayon pumpkins. Use white tacky glue or thick liquid glue to place colored crayons all around the top of the pumpkin.

Then use a hair dryer on a high heat setting to melt the crayons so they drip down the fruit and create an abstract kind of art. Warning – this is messy!

10) Cover with Lace or Fishnet Stockings: Cover pumpkins with a patterned lace stuck on using a hot glue gun or pop them inside fishnet stockings and tie off at the top and bottom. A quick way to decorate. Choose a color like black that will contrast well with the orange flesh.

Ideas and Photos on No Carve Pumpkins for Kids and Families to Make

Image Credit: Shared with a CC License by Hey Paul Studios on Flickr

Real mummies were wrapped in natural linen fabric but you can use cheesecloth to create this bandaged effect. It will need to be adhered at intervals probably with a glue gun by an adult or with a white tacky glue that kids could use.

Paint on or find some big googly eyes to stick on to the eye area. I just know my daughter will love this fun, novelty design because she loves learning about the Egyptians and how they turned Kings into Mummies.

Image credit: Shared with a CC License by Dane Brian on Flickr

I love this bewitching design. The pumpkin has been painted in a monster green shade first, probably with an acrylic type of paint mixed with some white glue so it will stick. Then some eyes and a mouth have been added on. You could paint these or draw them out onto paper and then glue them on.

It has then been dressed to look like a witch with some hair (use a cheap black wig or black yarn) and a witch’s hat which can be constructed from paper. The fruit is then placed on top of some black fabric which looks like her dress or cloak and some legs and a little broom detail have been made to finish it off. This is a really fun craft project that the whole family could enjoy creating.

I love the idea of making a menacing monster spider pumpkin. You would need to paint the front so it looks rather horrific and evil spider with lots of eyes. Then you can add in the eight legs.

Use very long black chenille stems or pipe cleaners since these can be bent to make the leg shapes and stuck into the flesh on the fruit. It’s a very fang-tastic idea. Have fun making your designs this October.

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Page Last Updated: August 24th, 2018