Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

| By | | 305 Comments

3 Fun Pumpkin Projects To Do With Young Kids

Since Clara’s still a few years off from knife-wielding age, we still scratch our heads each year for a toddler-friendly way for her to be involved in the pumpkin decorating process. When she was 5 months old we borrowed the outline of her hand to inspire a lady-like Jack-o-Lantern (a Jill-o-Lantern perhaps?)

Tissue 2010

Last year we took advantage of her new-found dexterity and let her finger paint some pumpkins that we had strategically taped off ahead of time to later reveal some designs.

Tissue 2011

And since she had so much fun last year (and we loved how they turned out) we did a slight twist on that idea by making tissue paper “sticker” pumpkins this year.

Tissue 2012

Anyone who follows us on instagram knows that Clara is obsessed with stickers. And although a pumpkin covered in her usual fare of Snoopys and Barneys would have been fun, we thought it might be even more exciting to try our hand at something we could customize. So we decided to make our own “stickers” with the help of some colorful tissue paper and good ol’ Mod Podge that we already had on hand.

Tissue 0 Supplies

Sherry used some leftover tissue paper from Clara’s pink-and-orange birthday party and cut a bunch of large and small circles using, of all things, a roll of electrical tape as her guide (tracing the outside made the big ones, and tracing the inside made the small ones). Use what you got, right?

Tissue 1 Circles Before Cutting

Then I basically just used a big paintbrush to coat the pumpkin with a thin layer of Mod Podge as Clara placed the tissue dots wherever she pleased. It was really that simple.

Tissue 2 John Painting

We spotted (pun!) these pumpkins at Kroger, and knew they would be awesome (we thought a lighter colored pumpkin would help all of the colors show up since sheer orange and pink dots on an orange pumpkin might be harder to see). Although they might look like typical white pumpkins, they actually have a hint of orangey-pink to them, so it’s a fun twist. Plus a portion of proceeds went to breast cancer research, so that was pretty great too.

Tissue 4 Clara Papering

You can see that the tissue did crinkle a bit as it went down. Bumpy pumpkin surface + toddler fingers = nothing perfectly smooth. But we didn’t mind, we were just happy she was having fun. I did occasionally dab some extra Mod Podge over top to help them stay down, which seemed to help.

Tissue 5 More Paper

The best part was that Clara was IN LOVE with the project. I realize she doesn’t look particularly gleeful in these photos, but it’s because she was so focused on it. She asked several times that night if we could do it again. Plus, we appreciated that it wasn’t nearly as messy as we had anticipated (note the table covered in craft paper). I probably ended up with more Mod Podge on me than she did (I did accidentally stick my forearm in it once) but since it’s basically Elmer’s Glue, it washed off easily with plain water.

Tissue 6 More Paper CU

We did two pumpkins in total, but the fun didn’t stop there. There were so many extra tissue dots that Clara kept on playing (sorting them, lining them up, singing to them, putting them on her head…).

Tissue 7 Playing With Paper

After she went to bed that night Sherry did a full coat of Mod Podge over the pumpkins just to ensure that all of the edges got adhered. The bonus was that it also gave the whole thing a nice smooth and glossy feel.

Tissue 8 After

We think they’re really fun- especially since we just used what we had around the house and came up with something sticker-ish for our sticker-obsessed girl. So if you have any toddlers who are into stickers, this could be a fun weekend project (and tissue paper is only around 99 cents, so it’s pretty cheap too).

Tissue 9 After Close

I attempted to get a cute picture of Clara sitting next to her pumpkin creations, but there was little interest in being still. And yes, she’s wearing the same shirt from the day before. We had dressed her in it as the “it’s ok to get messy” shirt for the project, but since it survived so well it became the next day’s outfit when paired with the skirt of her choosing.

Tissue 10 Clara Pointing

The most interaction I could get out of Clara was her singing “Rock-A-Bye, Baby” to them while swinging the glider-bench back and forth.

Tissue 11 Rocking

Then she discovered a broom nearby and it was like the pumpkins never existed. When a girl’s gotta sweep, a girl’s gotta sweep!

Tissue 12 Sweeping

And if you’re looking for some easy pumpkin paper crafts, our friends at Childhood Magic have a free pumpkin printable that you could use in a variety of ways and give kids of all skill levels an easy way to help you decorate for fall.

Psst – Sherry wants me to mention that for the first time ever she’s attempting to DIY certain aspects of Clara & Burger’s costumes this year, so we’ll keep you posted and share some pics as soon as they’re done (most likely right on Halloween if I know my wife…).

Comments

  1. Sarah says

    I’m so going to do this and I don’t even have kids yet! My husband and I hosted a pumpkin carving party a few weekends ago so this is on the docket for next year! :-) Thanks, Petersiks!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Thanks! Ours is non-toxic, so maybe it’s the kid kind? The industry secret is that Mod Podge is Elmer’s Glue, just in a jug. Exact same smell, consistency, and non-toxic ingredients for kiddos).

      xo
      s

  3. Jett says

    Clara is too cute and I love seeing glimpses of the way you guys parent her in your videos. I’m older than many of your readers and while I love the decorating ideas I think I enjoy the Clara videos and pictures just as much! I have enjoyed every age my kids have been, but those toddler years were just too sweet! I think you already know this, but savor every day while she is little. The years just fly by!

    Reply

  4. heather says

    Totally random. For some reason John has always reminded me of (re: not looked just like, just reminded) the twins that sing with Brandi Carlile. I just saw her in Portland (she’s amazing live), and she put on instagram a photo of her niece Jo that tours with them, when she came to the State Theater. That first photo of Clara and Jo look very similar. :)

    http://instagram.com/p/RLtfRRJHLk/

    Reply

  7. Kim says

    My goodness, sweet little Clara has really been growing by leaps and bounds! She looks more mature in every video you post. (I’m totally jealous of her hair growth, by the way. My hair has been falling out for health reasons… Clara, care to share your secret with me?)

    Love the pumpkins, they look awesome! Good job, Clara!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Clara’s hair is a true mystery! Lately she has been loving peanut butter and hummus so maybe that’s her secret? Mine falls out when I’m prego (at least when I had Clara) and nursing, so I want to know the secret too!

      xo
      s

    • heather says

      I was terrified of this whole losing hair thing so I looked it up. From what I read on pregnancy/parenting sites from professionals, I guess your hair stops falling out during pregnancy (and we actually lose quite a bit of hair a day regularly). So times that loss by 9 months of not losing it, and then when your system kicks back in you’re losing all of the hair you would have, plus your regular amount. Fannnnntastic. At least it’s good to know that (for most women) it’s not some hormone imbalance or what not.

    • Kim says

      Hummus must be Clara’s secret! I eat lots of peanut butter and it doesn’t seem to be helping, haha.

      I’m struggling with anemia/low iron, and that can cause hair loss. Even if you’re not anemic, you can lose hair if your iron level declines (which is common during pregnancy and after giving birth). Chickpeas have a high iron content, so maybe that really is what’s helping Clara’s hair!

  8. LauraC says

    I am so doing this tomorrow! GREAT idea! We’re having a pumpkin-carving party, and now instead of just having to watch, Jonathan (a month older than Clara) can decorate his own pumpkin! My five-year-old just asked if she could do it too! Thanks!!!!

    Reply

  9. Cara says

    Love those, so cute! I am doing your weekly photos idea with my daughter. We are on week 48 and it is getting almost impossible to keep her on the blanket. She is rolling over and taking off before I can get one shot. How did you guys do it? I’m not giving up since I made it this far but it was way easier when she was littler!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We tried to dangle things over her head to keep her interested or talk and sing to her- anything to keep her from wiggling away! Haha. Sometimes giving her something to hold helped (ex: play with this small item so you don’t want to roll around). Good luck!

      xo
      s

  10. Karen says

    Sadly our pumpkin adventures haven’t been going so well! For the first year ever we have a lovely back porch and did a little fall display of flowers and pumpkins for us to enjoy, but it seems some very hungry squirrels in our neighborhood are also enjoying it. They have completely eaten or just walked away with three and a half of our small pumpkins so far, and are starting to snack on the two larger ones! We’ll have to carve them soon before the squirrels do it for us! I hope your Halloween is not too affected by the storm. Stay safe!

    Reply

  12. Kelsey Brown says

    What a great idea!
    We glittered our punkins this year. Three year old loved it! Squirt Elmers glue on, rub it in with a cotton ball (or fingers!) Shake any colored glitter on (we got a 4pk of different colors for $2 at the dollar store) and give punkins a shake after they dry so the excess glitter comes off! Easy peasy!

    Reply

  13. Stephanie B. says

    I think there is one real question here: who WAS calling “Daddy’s phone” – Granny or Grammy? ;)

    But seriously…what a cute project AND a cute girl!

    Reply

  14. Ruth says

    Cute idea! I, too, was searching for toddler-friendly ways to decorate our pumpkins. We painted on (she had a blast with that). The other was inspired by an idea at Target – where they were selling “Mr. PotatoHead” kits for pumpkins. Since we had a Mr. PotatoHead at home already, I just created small holes in the pumpkin with a skinny knife and my toddler shoved the pieces of her choosing in where she wanted them. I was worried about if it would ooze or get gross quickly, but it’s been almost 2 weeks and so far, so good!

    Reply

  15. Karen says

    Love your idea. Our family’s tradition is to decorate pumpkins with candy. We use straight pins to hold the candy on. It actually works really well for the kids to do it by themselves.

    Reply

  16. Justine says

    That video was so cute! My son came over to the computer as I was watching it (he’s the same age as Clara)and he kept waving and saying “hi!”
    What a good idea for the pumpkins! For my son this year I painted a thick stripe of chalkboard paint all around the pumpkin and then let him deocrate it with colored chalk. It turned out pretty cute, but yours are just beautiful! Clara is quite the artist! :)

    Reply

  17. Heather C says

    What a cute/fun/low-stress pumpkin project. If you end up carving another pumpkin, I have to invite you to participate in our little pumpkin project!
    http://www.learningscienceisfun.com/2012/10/pumpkin-seed-count/
    We are taking a very unscientific survey to see if there is any correlation between the size of a pumpkin and how many seeds are inside. We got all geeked out, making a “pumpkin pi” and a happy little face so far and the data we’ve collected has been surprising. I thought you guys might enjoy the geekiness too :) Happy Halloween!

    Reply

  19. Amy says

    We’ve been talking about the “Frankenstorm” up here in upstate NY too. It’s kind of (okay really) scary because we were hit with the Flood of Doom last year in September so folks in my area are still pretty paranoid about large quantities of rain.
    Hope you guys stay safe down there!
    BTW – Adorable pumpkins. I believe the seed variety is called “Porcelin Doll” and they are relatively new.

    Reply

  20. Tiffany says

    I do not have any kids, but I totally want to do this to some pumpkins….maybe in a more chic color pattern, although the girly me is totally scrambling to do the pink and orange!! So cute guys!

    Reply

  21. Lauren C says

    I love Clara projects!! I’m so excited to have a daughter younger than her. We copy/tweak your ideas a lot. I am at week 43 of our photo project now. You also inspired us to use cloth diapers…no regrets so far.

    Reply

  22. Heather says

    Cute pumpkins! But…what’s with all the cheerful Halloween stuff?? Halloween is supposed to be scary!! Where are the scary, ghoulish pumpkins?? I totally thought you artsy, zany kids would come up with some sort of awesomely creative spooky masterpiece for Halloween!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We’ve learned the hard way that “scary” is not Clara’s idea of a good time. Maybe in a year or two when she’s better able to distinguish real scary and “fun scary.”

      -John

  26. Maribeth Scott says

    Heard in the video that Clara has a Granny and a Grammy too! Our 6-month-old obviously doesn’t call them that yet, but I’ve wondered if it would be too confusing. Good to know it has worked for someone else :)

    Reply

  28. Anna in Ohio says

    Since Logan-Man is only 22 months old, I purchased 3 Mr. Potato Head Pumpkin Push In kits from Target. A ghost, a witch and a devil. He had super fun helping daddy with the rubber mallet to drive the body parts into the mini pumpkins. And bonus, mess free and super cute!

    Reply

  29. Kim W Rily says

    Love that she likes to go to Home Depot. It’s one of the signs Max recognizes (along with CarMax, for obvious reasons). Have you done the Home Depot kids projects weekends? Every Saturday the Home Depot here (and in the one in Virginia, near my folks house too, so I think it’s nationwide) has free kids projects. It usually includes hammering and painting something together, bird house, bird feeder, frame, box, something like that. My kids love it. I think you may have to be 3 to participate, but Max started a teeny bit earlier and we help him out when needed.

    Reply

  30. Momcat says

    Ahhh-dorable! Those pumpkins are really eye catching!

    I was going to do polka dot holes on my pumpkin this year (using an apple corer). Maybe I’ll combine your idea with mine, and modpodge some tissue paper over the holes so it glows through.

    Reply

  33. Stefani says

    So cute! I love the pumpkins and think it’s a great idea that I’ll have to do with my little girl in a couple of years! Right now she’s 6 weeks old so in 2 years she’ll be closer to Clara’s age and this project should be great.

    But speaking of babies growing up… I can’t believe how fast Clara’s growing up. Seeing those pics from the past 2 Halloweens is amazing. She went from a little baby to a little girl so fast. On the one hand I can’t wait for my daughter to start walking and talking like Clara since it’s such a crazy cute stage but on the other hand it makes me sad thinking that this little baby stage is going to be all gone so quickly!! I’m tearing up just thinking about it.

    Reply

  34. Karen F says

    awww, what a fun project! you’re so creative. love the concept and that you used what you had. the pumpkins came out SO cute, and I’m glad Clara had fun making them! I think my girls would love this project, too!

    we may do some pumpkin carving next week (if the storm doesn’t hit!). We already painted some using painter’s tape, like you did last year!

    Good luck with the storm (hope it avoids you), the costume-making, and hope you feel better soon, Sherry (saw the instagram post earlier with the tea)!

    Reply

  37. Meredith says

    Breast cancer is terrible. It really is.   But it is a disease, not a marketing opportunity. John and Sheri, I hope that you might take a moment and google “breast cancer marketing scams” or click a couple links below. I challenge you to address this, in the age of pink spatulas, pink ribboned batteries, and pink socked football players from the NFL down to peewee divisions.  

    From that press release, you don’t know what charity benefits or how much is given.   

    “Participating pumpkin growers have committed to giving a percentage of their proceeds from each pumpkin sold this year to organizations involved in breast cancer research.”

    This “pink washing” has gotten out of hand. Our town even has a portion of our trash cans made pink.  It’s ludicrous and offensive.   

    http://m.jezebel.com/5380683/breast-cancer-is-a-disease-not-a-marketing-opportunity

    http://m.jezebel.com/5840564/the-breast-cancer-charity-scam

    http://www.marieclaire.com/_mobile/world-reports/news/breast-cancer-business-scams

    But your polka dot pumpkins are dang cute!! 

    Reply

    • Meredith says

      Let me ad that I know this can be an unpopular opinion. But more and more people are realizing that the only winner in all this are the retailers, marketers, and even the occasional (though growing more prolific) scam artist. If a retailer like Kroger were to choose to not support this mass marketing mess, they would be looked down upon as not supporting breast cancer awareness. Once our town got the pink trash cans, I couldn’t take it anymore. Any chance I get I try to let people know they are getting duped into supporting “charities” that may not actually give that much (often pennies), or are supporting pink labeled products assuming they are supporting a breast cancer charity directly with the purchase of that specific item but if you read the fine print, the corporation donates a flat amount that isn’t at all tied to the product purchase at all. They would have donated anyway. So the only winner is the corporation who duped you into but batteries you didn’t need during October simply because they have a pink ribbon on it.

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Honestly never knew that! Thanks for the tip! We make donations directly to charities as well, so hopefully that helps. My sister in law’s mother died of breast cancer so it’s a cause that’s close to our heart. My brother and his wife do Relay For Life every year :)

      xo,
      s

    • Meredith says

      Sheri, thanks for acknowledging this. It’s a big fraud being pulled everywhere. I figured with your support of all things “low voc” and habitat reStore etc you would appreciate this tip. Those articles sre only thr tip of the iceburg. So many of my friends think its terrible that I would have this opinion, thinking I’m against research for breast cancer. That couldn’t be further from the truth. This is a huge mass marketing scam. My sister in law and best friend couldn’t take it anymore when they were forced to buy pink socks and shoe covers for their pop Warner football players. All they were told was “it’s for breast cancer awareness and a portion goes to breast cancer charities.”. It’s rediculous. It’s one thing (I guess) for the NFL and big corporate sponsors but it’s so it is opportunistic at the youth level.

  38. Amanda says

    Oh my gosh! This is brilliant! My 2.5 yr old would LOVE this! I’m going to have to find some pumpkins…if there are any left!
    And the end result is so “Martha Stewart” looking! LOVE it!

    Reply

  41. Beth says

    I so wish my kids were still small enough to enjoy all of your pumpkin projects. I love them all. I also used to be torn with how to involve them. They always liked putting their hands in the “innards” and scooping it out. One year I found Mr. Potato Head pieces to put in the pumpkins and they loved that. Prepare for what sounds like a “stalkerish” comment, but isn’t: I could just eat Clara up. She is the cutest!!!! Keep the posts involving Clara coming because they really brighten my day!

    Reply

  42. Esther says

    That Clara video is ADORABLE! She is so so sweet and cute and as so many comments already said, she speaks beautifully.

    Just a quick question, and this is probably going to be the highest unrelated-question-to-post-topic ratio you have ever had, but I was browsing some posts from back in the day and your old house and the living/dining room combo you had. I have almost the exact same layout and I want to add those skinny floating shelves to define the dining space like you had as well, but did you ever find that they interfered at all with the people who would sit right under them in terms of getting in and out and hitting your head, etc.? Or was it just unnoticeable, not an issue?

    Reply

  43. Sarah@SBrandesDesigns says

    So adorable! I’ll be pinning this for future reference and sharing this with my sister because my niece would have so much fun with this (last year for christmas I got her a canvas with a taped of design and some craft paints & her & I made artwork for her room together. Last time I was visiting home she asked me if we could do it again)

    Reply

  45. Jan says

    Home Depot….what a hoot. I just love listening to little kids talk. They are so honest and it really reveals how much thinking goes on in their little heads.

    She’s adorable.

    Reply

  46. Anne G. says

    Hi – I am curious if the Mod Podge is really stinky. I know how careful you guys are about things like VOCs, and I’ve never used Mod Podge before, so I’m just curious! Thanks. LOVE the way the polk-a-dot pumpkins turned out. So pretty.

    Reply

  47. Hilary says

    …go to Home Depot! She is a girl after my own heart :0) Pumpkins turned out so cute!! Thanks for the inspiration YHL! Praying for your safety during Sandy – so far just a lot of wind and big waves here in Daytona Beach!

    Reply

  48. Gabriella @ Our Life In Action says

    Aww such pretty pumpkins – we are doing ours tonight.

    We have a straw broom in our basement and one day he asked if it was majic. So I did what any parent would do and say “Definately! On Halloween, I use it to fly around”…seriously contemplating hanging it in front of the windows with fishing wire…either it will be super cool or scare the begebas out of him.

    Reply

  49. Alicia says

    We have 3 pumpkins from various pumpkin patch visits and i wanted to do something with them…I am so doing this project!

    I have boys so it might be as nice as little Ms. Clara’s but I think they will enjoy it! Michaels here I come!

    Reply

  50. Kim P. says

    These are such great ideas! My daughter is almost 5 months old now, and I can’t wait to use these ideas. What a fun way to involve little ones :)

    Reply

Stuff We Love

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *