Homemade Halloween Crafts And Decorations

October 15, 2008

Pumpkin Painting for Halloween

Halloween will be here in a couple of weeks and if you’re like most you haven’t carved your jack-o-lantern yet.

And why not?

Well the 2 most common reasons for not carving your pumpkin early are:

The jack-o-lantern won’t last until the holiday.
Procrastination – who wants to clean out the insides and stick their hands in all that gooey mess?

So rather than wait until the last minute to get some real pumpkin decorations out why not paint your pumpkin for Halloween?

Painting pumpkin Halloween faces can be enjoyed by everyone and can be done even when the holiday is still a couple of weeks off. And when Halloween is over you don’t have to throw out your pumpkin. You can use it as a Thanksgiving decoration. Simply turn it around and leave it plain or paint it again.

Now with just a few supplies anyone can transform a plain pumpkin into a fun homemade Halloween decoration. Here’s what you’ll need:

paint
brushes
sealer
your imagination or stencils

So how hard is it to paint a pumpkin?

It can be as easy as you want it to be as shown in this pumpkin face painting video.

Or it can be a bit more sophisticated.

The 6 important things to remember for Halloween pumpkin paintings are:

Choose only firm, sound pumpkins
Choose a good size and shape – smaller pumpkins usually have better shapes and take less time and paint
Clean and dry the pumpkin – don’t get the blossom-end wet because this makes the pumpkin rot faster. You may find it easier to clean the pumpkin and keep the blossom-end dry by using baby wipes or a wet paper towel.
Use a black Sharpie-brand permanent marker instead of black paint, for adding lines and lashes.
After your creation is completely use a dry clear shiny (gloss) spray sealer to protect it and make it shine.
Have fun

So this year why not try painting your pumpkins for Halloween. It’s easy and fun for the whole family. You can learn more about pumpkin face painting in this guide, “Pumpkin Painting, Anyone Can Do It, Really!” .

Happy Halloween,
Susan

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October 12, 2008

More Homemade Halloween Crafts and Decorations

Filed under: Free Gifts — Tags: crafts from trash, homemade halloween crafts and decorations, milk bottle pumpkin, soda bottle pumpkin — SusanCarroll @ 3:51 pm

After my last post I thought I’d treat my granddaughter by showing her some of the homemade Halloween crafts she could do.

She thought they were OK but said, “I really like pumpkins.”

So……

In keeping with the last theme of making some fun decorations for Halloween out of things we normally throw away, here are 2 ideas for getting rid of some of those big plastic bottles soda and milk come in.

Just make sure the bottles are empty and clean and you’ve removed the labels before you start.

Soda Bottle Jack-O-Lantern

Paint the bottle orange. Do this by pouring paint inside the bottle
and adding a little water. Put the lid back on and have the child swoosh
this around and around until the entire inside is coated. Pour out the
excess.
Cut eyes, nose, and mouth out of yellow construction paper and glue
onto the front of the bottle.
Place tissue paper or the felt around the lid of the bottle and tie
tight with the raffia or twine.

Milk Container Pumpkin

Lightly draw a jack-o’-lantern face on the front of the milk container.
Cut out features with scissors or a craft knife.
Cut a flap in the back of the pumpkin, big enough that you can fit a
sandwich bag full of sand or a handful of rocks in to weigh it down.
Paint the container with three coats of orange paint. Allow it to dry
between coats.
Holding the flickering tea light upside down, place it inside the mouth of
the milk container. (You may need to trim down the opening until the tea light
is able to fit inside.) Once you’ve sized the mouth, remove the tea light and
set it aside.
Cut out a rectangle from some brown felt big enough to fit around the mouth
of the milk container.
Use hot glue to line the inside of the area, and then fold the excess felt
down around the outside of the mouth and glue in place.
The tea light should fit snuggly inside and be pointing downward. (Do not
glue down the tea light – you should be able to remove and replace it when the
battery dies.)
Insert rocks or a small bag of sand into the back flap of the pumpkin for
weight.
Place pumpkin on the porch and when night falls, turn on the flickering tea
light!

Have a Happy Halloween,
Susan

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