With everyone’s busy schedules, it’s tricky to fit it all in. Halloween is fun, but sometimes there are groans not only from the spooky little goblins but also from the goblins’ parents in thinking about all the needed preparation. Pumpkins, costumes, treats and decorations, the list can go on and on.
Here are some easy ways to decorate your pumpkins with less mess, less fuss and lots of scary fun.
Instead of hollowing out your pumpkin, decorate it just the way it is. That way, you can save it for making pumpkin pie later and/or it will last longer and you can use it for a Thanksgiving decoration as well.
When shopping for a pumpkin, try and find something unusual, perhaps a white pumpkin or one with a funny shape. You can also use different gourds and/or squashes the same way you would a pumpkin to add an unusual twist on the usual pumpkin theme.
Put together several for an arrangement with fall leaves and branches. That way, you don’t need to carve or decorate them at all if you run out of time.
For a spooky look, use a permanent black marker and draw a scary scene of a witch flying in the air or a skeleton with rattling bones walking down the street.
For a 3D look, use black licorice of all or any type and a glue gun to construct a spooky house filled with bats or a face or whatever you wish.
All you need to do is cut the different types of licorice into the shapes and sizes that you need, put a little hot glue on the back of each piece and press them onto the pumpkin. Be careful, glue from a hot glue gun can easily burn if it drips or gets too close to you.
Another easy but fun idea is to decorate your pumpkin with plastic spiders or other bugs, spider webs, bat wings or any other spooky item you can find or buy in a store. You can even use plastic eyeballs and/ or vampire teeth to give your pumpkin a ghoulish grin.
Hollow out a hole big enough for each eye and glue them in their sockets. Do the same for the vampire teeth. Or, use googly eyes and some first aid gauze to make a pumpkin “mummy.”
Look around the house or go to a second hand store and find hats, old clothes, shoes or anything worthy of a costume for your pumpkin.
Kelly Dupre of Grand Marais is an artist, children’s author, and educator with over 20 years teaching experience with all age groups in a variety of settings. The activities in this once-amonth column are spin-offs and combinations of ideas she has used and learned from teachers, parents, kids, books, and workshops. Only some of the activities has she actually thought of herself! Do you have a project or an idea you would like to see on the Whirligigs page? Let us know! Send your suggestion to starnews@boreal.org.
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