Today is 20 MINUTE DECORATING and my blogging friends and I are sharing so many great ways to decorate your home in the time it takes to watch the commercials in one hour of TV! Honestly, how easy is that?
Easy Pumpkin Painting Ideas for Kids with FREE .SVG Pumpkin Stencils
Before you dive into messy pumpkin carving, try these easy pumpkin painting ideas for kids! Free Pumpkin SVG file downloads included!
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If you’ve ever attempted a family pumpkin carving party with kids, you know how hard it can be to carve a pumpkin with toddlers and preschoolers who want to participate but can’t quite use a knife.
Giving kids their own pumpkins with paintbrushes and paint always seems like a great way to get little kids involved!
But I have to admit, watching a toddler or preschooler use those brushes to plaster streaks and streaks of paint to mini pumpkins is only a small upgrade in my book. It can still get very messy, and the end result is typically a pumpkin we don’t use in any other way aside from the activity.
The Best Pumpkin Painting Ideas
This year I kept thinking there has to be a better way! My kids would love to feel like they created the perfect pumpkin with a fun design they can DIY and proudly display on the front porch. It hit me: a stencil and washable paint just may be the trick to a perfectly painted Halloween pumpkin! And I’m pleased to report, it really is! You’re going to love this pumpkin painting idea that helps avoid the mess and leans to so much creativity with pumpkin ideas!
Supplies:
Craft Pumpkin to paint. Get creative here, you can snag a classic pumpkin, but a craft pumpkin is something you can use over and over again! Also, feel free to grab a fun pumpkin color, a glitter pumpkin, dark pumpkins, or stick to a classic orange or white pumpkin.
Paint: Simple acrylic paint meant for crafts works perfectly, but we like using washable paint. And classic black paint is perfect for these designs.
*You can also grab a paint pen if you want a more precise look!
* Spray painting is also a great option if you want a permanent look and you have an adult ready to use the spray paint.
Cutting Machine. A Cricut will make this about a thousand times easier, and get every intricate detail of your pumpkin painting designs.
Pumpkin Stencils
Download one of our free Pumpkin SVG files below to use in your design.
Instructions:
- Choose your design, and use your cutting machine to cut it out. If you don’t have one, ask a friend or neighbor who does! I think you’ll be amazed how many are happy to help you provide the vinyl and the SVG pumpkin template!
- Place the stencil however you’d like it to appear on your pumpkin. Make sure to press it down firmly! It will come off, but you want a crisp painting line with minimal paint drip.
- Paint away! I handed my toddler a craft paintbrush and some washable paint, and he was able to paint the easy Bat stencil pumpkin!
- Allow the paint to dry. It only took us about a half hour to feel pretty confident our paint was dry, but you may want to give it an hour.
- Carefully remove the vinyl pumpkin stencil.
- Grab a wet washcloth and wipe off any drip marks or smudges.
If you used a craft pumpkin and washable paint, you can wipe it off before you put it in storage, and create a new pumpkin design next year! It’s one of those fun Halloween ideas you can repeat over and over again!
Display it with your Halloween decor, on your front porch, or anywhere you’re ready for a pop of non-messy Halloween fun!
Free Pumpkin SVG Files
We have four fun, (and did I mention FREE!) .SVG files ready to download and cut the vinyl stencil. Grab your favorite ones here!
SQUEEZE PAINT PUMPKIN ART: EASY NO CARVE PUMPKIN IDEA FOR KIDS
With little ones, carving pumpkins may not be in the cards until they are older. This no-carve squeeze paint pumpkin art is an easy set-up that results in beautiful and colorful pumpkins. Kids will love the process of creating them as much as the final result!
No-Carve Squeeze Paint Pumpkins – Materials:
– Pumpkins
– Spray paint (these mini cans are great)
– Paint in various colors (we love these bright neon watercolors or you can use tempera paints which we did as well)
– Squeeze bottles
– Drop cloth
Instructions:
Step 1. We first spray painted our pumpkins to turn them into colorful canvases, but that is optional.
Step 2. Add paint to your squeeze bottles.
Step 3. Place your pumpkins over your drop cloth. Then just squeeze paint in various colors over your pumpkins. Go from the top, tip the pumpkins, add to the sides. Watch the paint drip to a gooey mess. Then let the paint settle.
Once the paint settles to the bottom, move the pumpkins to a spot on the drop cloth to continue drying (overnight is best if your kids use lots of paint).
Although spray painting the pumpkins first is optional, I love seeing the colors peek out among the drops of squeeze paint.
The pumpkins turned out so colorful! This is a fun process art project for kids that results in beautiful abstract pumpkin art.
HERE’S WHAT YOU WILL NEED
- pumpkins without deep ribs
- medium tipped acrylic paint pen markers HERE FOR A SET
- plastic lid for making the curved vine
PAINTED PUMPKIN DIY INSTRUCTIONS
This is such an easy painted pumpkin diy!
Clean pumpkins in sudsy water and rinse. Dry completely before beginning this project.
Because I did not know what pattern I wanted to create on the little pumpkin I experimented on the bottom of it. If you are using waterbased markers they will wash off if you want to experiment or if you make a mistake.
To clean up a mistake use a damp Q-tip. And wait for the area to dry to paint it again.
I chose a little stylized flower for the pumpkin’s overall look. Here’s how I made it…
- a center dot and six little strokes around the dot.
- this was not rocket science so I did not get concerned if a flower came out a bit extra stylized!
- I added dots in between some of the flowers so the overall pattern looked more cohesive
It is important to work on a section of the pumpkin at a time. The acrylic paint pen dries fast but you don’t want to smudge your work.
What cute little painted pumpkins!
VINE AND LEAVES PUMPKIN DIY
The taller vine and leaves painted pumpkin was just as easy to make. It only took a bit longer.
The great thing about these painted pumpkins is you can work on them and stop and then come back to them again. This is especially nice if painting the pumpkin takes a little time.
Here’s how to make this pumpkin…
Use a lid of a plastic container (because it bends easily) to trace an arch onto a pumpkin.
Wait a just a minute to make sure the vine was dry and then draw leaves along the vine and color them in as shown. At the beginning and end of each vine, I add a few dots to add a pretty look.
Continue to create vines positioning them differently around the pumpkin. Add leaves going in different directions too!
Just think of all the fun ways you can decorate pumpkins. You could use real or faux pumpkins! Orange or white or any color in between.
And think of all the really pretty patterns you can add to a pumpkin that will give it a designer look!
If you like the white painted pumpkins you might also want to check out…
- PUMPKINS IN VELVET
- BEAUTIFUL BLUE AND WHITE CHINOISERIE PUMPKIN DIY
- HOW TO GILD A PUMPKIN
- 100 WAYS TO USED PUMPKINS IN YOUR FALL DECORATING
Please visit my blogging friends and see what great 20-minute decorating ideas they are sharing today…
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