Why I Think Painting Pumpkins Is Better Than Carving

I did it last year and I did it again this year. I love painting pumpkins and my kid loves it too. 

If you have young children this is so much easier for them, but if you want to keep up with the old tradition of carving more power to you.

If you want to start a new tradition, keep reading!

Cons of Carving

• Pumpkin guts are gross and messy.

• Cleaning out the pumpkin is a pain in the rear.

• Carving the outside is tricky.

• Carved pumpkins will rot faster.

Pros of Painting

• Painting is an easy clean up.

• There are thousands of easy references on Pinterest.

• It is so easy for kids, they can just go to town!

• Your finished pieces will last longer.

What You'll Need

You've decided my idea, yay! You've "pinned" a bunch of ideas on characters or designs on what you can do. So what supplies do you need to stock up on at the store?

I used this small one for the pokeball

• Pumpkins (white is slightly easier but you can use orange)
• Assorted Paint Brushes or Sponges
• Acrylic Paint (Any colors to make your idea come to life)
• Newspaper
• Felt, Google Eyes, Scissors, Hot Glue Gun (Assorted items depending on your design)

Getting Started

Great you've got an idea, the kids have an idea, you've got supplies. So first you set up your station, a kitchen table or fold up table. 

Cover what ever station you've decided on in the newspaper or scrap paper. Use a paper plate as your paint palette.

If the kids are just painting as they go they can get started right away and go crazy. 

Yellow Paint was too thin.
(You also do not need to
paint the pumpkin white first)

If you have a specific idea in mind that requires the pumpkin to be colored in a specific color, use a sponge brush to completely cover the pumpkin. 

You will need to do a few layers. Make sure the paint is thick because if it is too thin it will peel off your first layer underneath.

Next Step

If you're doing characters like I did you need to completely wait for your base color to dry before you start working on the face.

My daughter Lily in the background.

Last year when I did Poppy from Trolls I hot glued googly eyes and felt for her nose and ears. 

Stick on diamonds for her cheeks and pipe cleaners for her eyelashes. 

Permanent marker for her eyebrows and mouth.

A headband, tulle, and ribbon for her hair.

This year I mainly used felt and paint for Pikachu. I wasn't yet confident in my steady hand skills to do the eyes or cheeks. 

I recommend using child cutting scissors when cutting the felt, they were easier to maneuver around curves. My regular scissors took forever until I got my daughters out.

If You're Just Using Paint

I made so many mistakes when I attempted the pokeball, I do not have steady hands so my lines were all wobbly.

But cool thing about acrylic paint is you just wait a little bit for it to dry, you can go over it again and fix your mistakes.

This is where your assorted paint brushes will come in handy. You'll need different shapes and sizes to get the details just right.

The end result was the first picture up at the top and it looked way better completed.

Our Other Completed Works

You have to pat the spots on Sully with a
sponge brush to get the different
shades and dimensions

I was finally confident at this point with my skills. Especially when I saw how easy it was to fix mistakes. So I went all in with Mike and Sully from Monsters Inc. 

My daughter Lily is 5 but she did help me with the projects I did by painting them with the all over color.

And she was so happy with our end result when we were done.

She completed the pumpkin on the right by herself. (I helped minimally.) 

Glitter paint is really fun!

We all had a ton of fun working on these together. I know next year we'll be doing it again with her little brother right next to us.

Will you be painting pumpkins next year?