Pumpkin Painting

Now that Carter is older, I feel like holidays are getting more and more fun!  I love getting into the holiday spirit no matter which one it is.  I love to decorate, bake, dress up, you name it!  Our decorations for fall and Halloween are lacking a bit this year from moving, but that hasn’t ruined our spirit!  I recently saw a list of fall activities for toddlers and pumpkin painting was on the list, along with some other fun crafts.  I think we might carve a pumpkin closer to Halloween, but for now we decided to paint some instead!  It’s been a while since I’ve done a craft with Carter.  I forgot how fun, cute, and very messy it gets!  We had a blast.  Here are some extra tips if you decide to paint some pumpkins with your own kiddos!

Tip #1: It’s going to be messy… paint outside if you can!

Just remember that if you’re doing crafts with your toddlers, it’s always going to be messy.  Embrace it!  We were lucky enough that it was 75 and sunny on a day in October, (in Michigan.. so crazy), so we did our pumpkin painting on the patio at our cabin.  The paint was a little all over the place, but that was okay because we were outside.

Tip #2: Use washable paint and foam brushes.

I found some random kid’s paint at Walmart that was washable.  It easily came off of Carter hands and clothes.  The paint that got on our patio was also washed away by the rain, so it was a win win!  We also used a small pack of foam brushes which were easy for Carter to hold and paint with.  Highly recommend!

Tip #3: Only use a few colors.

I was about to load up the paper plate with every color of the rainbow!  But I decided to only put three colors on it to see how Carter would do first.  Well I’m glad I did that because he ended up mixing all of the colors together anyways!  He loved getting his hands (and himself) nice and messy!  I also thought afterwards, even one color would have been fine to paint with.

Tip #4: Paint with them.

I personally love arts and crafts.  It’s important to do the project with your kids if you can.  Let them go to town painting their pumpkins, but also show them that you can do it too!  When you’re excited about the craft and giving them lots of positive reinforcement they will enjoy it that much more.  Did I get paint all over myself too? Yep!  But we had a blast, and I can’t wait to craft again sometime soon.

If you had a chance to paint your own pumpkins, I’d love to hear about it!  Or if you have any other fun Halloween ideas for Carter and I to do together, please let me know.  We are always up for trying new projects.  Happy Crafting!

Lots of love and God Bless,

Alyssa