No Carve Pumpkins for Halloween
Trick-Or-Treat!
Smell my feet, give me something good to eat!
If you don't, I wont care,
I'll pull down your underwear!!
Oh C'mon, Halloween is not just for the kiddos! Lets have some fun right along with them. And while were at it lets keep from any cuts, or scrapes or ER visits! Just kidding, sort of. I love carving pumpkins, I might even do one this year seriously I have nothing against them. In my early 20's I started getting pretty good at it and having a lot of fun with my creations. Anyhow, carving a pumpkin with a toddler is not super realistic and they cant really help all that much. Scooping out the seeds is fun and we will let our little one partake in that this year, in conjunction with all the no carve fun we've already been having. Our little one enjoyed helping create some awesome no carve pumpkins that were safe, creative, and ... this is a big one, last more than a few days!! You can make these before Halloween and even keep them around for awhile after!
The above pumpkin is a no carve, Crayon Melt-Art Pumpkin! Some people and examples you may find have painted the pumpkin white and used a variety of colors usually a rainbow. I decided to keep this as "toddler" friendly as possible and painting an entire pumpkin is not. So instead we stuck to more "Halloween-like" colors. This really isn't as toddler friendly as thought. I am not even sure it is, but I got it in my head to do it so here we go! If your not careful the wax can splatter and make a big mess. Think bacon grease from a hot pan of cooking bacon. Not as dangerous but even harder to clean! Anyway he liked watching for a few minutes and held the blow dryer for second until he realized he couldn't run off with it! Anyhow I would recommend this for maybe a teenager or a bit older child who has patience and enjoys arts and even science. It took a lot of manipulation and concentration to make this work as well as adjusting the heat levels and the space between the crayons and dryer. Anyhow it was interesting and fun and makes for a cool looking pumpkin!
Next we have the EASIEST one of the patch! I thought I should show you a pumpkin that was cheap to make, easy to find materials and can be done by just about anyone! Yup peel and stick and voila! Oh and perfect because, clearance!
Here's an oldie but a goody! We created this sweet "fake" pumpkin during my sons first fall season. First we did my husbands hand print in
white, then mine in yellow, and the my little 6 week old's hand in orange! I wrote "Thankful" beneath, and 2015 on the other side of the pumpkin. We can put it out at the start of fall and keep it around all season for many, many more to come. . . and its #nocarve!
EEK! Here's my fave, mini doughnut pumpkins!! So stinking cute, toddler approved and fun to make! We bought donuts from the fabulous Krispy Kreme shop around the corner and had a blast eating and decorating. I picked a light brownish color to use as the
"frosting" and then used colors we had on hand to make the sprinkles. Of course my little guy (2 years old) didn't quite get the concept of sprinkles and proceeded to spread the blue around all willy-nilly like which whatever, hey its his craft! When he lost interest and walked away I added some sprinkles for good measure ;-).
Aw this one was fun! Sorry there are no pics of this process because well one toddler, his two feet, paint, and two adults with only four hands. We needed all the hands we could get! Anyhow super cute and the toddler-man was actually pretty well behaved and cooperative. Got his feet placement a little low but hey contrary to popular beliefs crafts aren't perfect!! Also I just love the saying! It's traditional, fun and so, oh, so boy! We used a big foam brush to paint his feet, started with the heel and rolled the pumpkin into his foot. Once the foot was placed well enough we pulled the pumpkin directly off his foot. This is key, whenever doing hand-print, or footprint crafts is to pull it directly off the surface as quickly as possible in one fail swoop.
Last but not least is a little throwback from last years Halloween. I show you last years because I am saving the repeat for Halloween this year as we will all be together as a family on the actual holiday as opposed to last year since my hubby had to work. Anyhow, I used blue painters tape to create my sons name which luckily does not contain "loopy" letters. When applying the tape make sure to press down as much as possible and make sure the corners are secured. We used different colors of acrylic paint and let little guy who was 1 years-old at the time have fun. He got his hands a bit paint-y and towards the end smacked himself in the ace (darn hands) and as you can see wasn't super happy but alas he survived!
Below are some links to some of the sites where I got inspiration as well as to some other sites that have great ideas for pumpkins, carve or no carve! Have a fantastic Halloween!! Thanks so much, as always for reading <3
Don't forget to have fun picking those pumpkins!! Or go to target and save your selves a bunch!!
