Kid Friendly Pumpkin Decorating

As I have absolutely no experience at carving pumpkins, we tried out three kid friendly pumpkin decorating ideas that don’t involve carving!

1. Jeweled Push Pins and Brads
I saw an idea on Pinterest where a pumpkin was decorated with thumbtacks. I decided to “bling” this up a bit by using jeweled push pins and brads. I used another small pumpkin to keep the project manageable for my toddler.

Note: My son was carefully supervised throughout this activity due to the sharp points on the pins.

The push pins went in easily but he needed a little help with the brads.

It might be fun to draw a design on the pumpkin for older kids to follow with the jewels. And the good news is that I get all the pins and brads back after Halloween for a new project! 🙂

2. Glitter Dot Pumpkin
I have loved the idea of glitter dot pumpkins since I saw them on The Swell Life several months ago. I prepared this activity in advance and used 1″ glue dots and loose glitter. I took the backing off one side of the glue dots and sprinkled the glitter over the dots, then shook off the excess. I used two types of glitter; sparkly black and holographic silver.

Then I put the glue dots and a medium-sized pumpkin on a cookie sheet so that the glue dots could be applied.

This was NOT a mess free activity! The glue dots pulled slightly out of shape so some of them weren’t perfect circles by the time they made it onto the pumpkin. I had to help F quite a lot and the glitter kind of got everywhere – so there are no photos of the process I’m afraid. But a pretty cool finished result.