4 ways to decorate a pumpkin without carving!

Am I the only one who loves the look of having decorated pumpkins on the front porch but hates how quickly they go bad on the front porch? Here in Washington, we are lucky to get a week out of our carved pumpkins, and it can be slightly more or less depending on the weather we are having that given year. 

However, I am not ready to give up on my pumpkin dreams, so instead, I came up with a couple of fun different ways to decorate your pumpkins with things you probably already have around the house. These four fun ways don’t call for cutting into the pumpkin, letting them last longer, and it is fun to include the whole family! 

Bats!

Am I the only one who thinks about the little girl who used to show up on our Facebook feeds saying, “It’s freaken’ bats! I love Halloween!” Well, this pumpkin was inspired by her! Here is what you will need:

1. Pumpkin- I personally like doing this with the white pumpkins, but you could definitely do it with an orange or another color if you prefer. 
2. Black Construction Paper- I used an old black poster board we had lying around from one of the kids’ projects.
3. Scissors- I would suggest using ones that have a sharper point if you are going to be doing any bats smaller than the ones that I did.
4. Bat silhouettes of differing sizes- Make sure you have different sizes to look like they are actually in flight.
5. Hot glue gun 

Once you have all of your necessary materials, use the bat outline to create a stencil. I actually just drew firmly over the bat silhouette till I could see it on my poster board and then cut out the paper bats. Pro Tip: fold the bat wings away from their center to add dimension. 

I then go ahead and lay out the bats on the table to see if I like the way they are going to “fly” up my pumpkin. I recommend putting the smaller bats at the base and the larger ones higher up. 

After you have found a layout you like, go ahead and take the hot glue gun to attach the paper bats to the pumpkin, and you are good to go! 

The next pumpkin I love is a painted pumpkin! 

For a painted pumpkin, you will need: 

1. Paint- I like to use acrylic paint.
2. Paintbrushes in various sizes- I try to plan what design I want to do before so I know what size paint brushes I need or if I need to go out to pick any more up.
3. Pumpkin- It doesn’t matter the color because you will be painting it anyways! 

This year I decided to do one of my favorite easy-painted pumpkins and one of my favorites Halloween treats! 

Candy Corn! The reason I love this one so much is that you only need two colors! For a white pumpkin, you can get orange and yellow, for an orange pumpkin, you only need white and yellow! 

All you need to do is separate the pumpkin into thirds and then paint! This year I had an orange pumpkin, so the top third I painted white, the middle I left orange, and then last third I painted yellow! 

Mummy Pumpkin- 

I love the idea of turning a pumpkin into something completely different! I am not sure why, but this pumpkin gives me snowman vibes! Maybe it’s because you are adding “clothes” to something. Either way, I love this one! Here is what you need: 

1. Pumpkin- This would be a fun time to use a green pumpkin, but I went ahead and used a white one this year.
2. First aid gauze- I have also used white masking tape, but I think the gauze gives it more of a realistic feel. 
3. Googly eyes- You can have a good time with this! Make them big, small, or different sizes! 
4. Hot glue gun

This might be the easiest pumpkin! All you do is wrap the pumpkin with gauze, create an opening and attach the googly eyes to the pumpkin with the hot glue gun, and that’s all!

Chalkboard Pumpkin-

I know you have heard of doing a chalk wall, but have you heard of doing a chalk pumpkin? We love doing a chalk pumpkin in my family because you can change it up as many times as you want! I love that you can just wash the chalk off and redo it depending on what is going on that week or that day! Here is what you need:

1. Pumpkin- Have we made it clear that you will need a pumpkin for all of these? 
2. Chalk paint- I like the one you paint on, but there are also chalk paint sprays you can use instead. 
3. Paintbrush- if you are going to paint rather than spray.
4. Chalk or chalk marker- I used a chalk marker for this one, but I actually like using school room chalk better because I notice it is easier to clean and change the pumpkin without the paint chipping and peeling off. 

Okay, I said the mummy was the easiest one, but I’ll take it back. The chalkboard pumpkin is definitely the easiest! All you do is paint your pumpkin with chalk paint, and then take your chalk paint and make the first of many designs! 

There you have it! Some easy and fun ways to decorate your pumpkins without having to get out your knives and letting your pumpkins stay as fresh as possible! 

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XO

Les