Top Ten Thursday

For Top Ten Thursday, I thought I'd share the ideas I've collected for decorating pumpkins, since Halloween is only two days away!

Top Ten Ways to Decorate a Pumpkin

1. Traditional—use carving tools and make triangles for the eyes and nose, and a jaggedy mouth!
2. Turn the stem into a nose—turn the pumpkin on it’s side so the stem looks like a nose and then paint the rest of the face around the nose.
3. Paint it—this is a great way to have little kids participate! Just buy some nontoxic tempera paints and let the kids make their own little masterpieces. (Word of Caution: don’t leave painted pumpkins outside unless you want to repaint them again and again!)
4. Crochet a cozy for it—I haven’t tried this yet, but if you know how to crochet, you could crochet a cozy for your pumpkin that will be reusable year after year! Just make sure you make the cozy a bit smaller than the pumpkin and only crochet in the back loops so the cozy will stretch to fit the pumpkin!
5. Use Mr. Potato Head Parts—this is my family’s favorite way to decorate pumpkins, and it's super easy! Just buy (or dig out of the toy chest) a bunch of Mr. Potato Head parts, use a drill or awl to put holes in the pumpkin, and then stick the parts in! We did this last year for one pumpkin, and it looked so cute that this year we are doing ALL our pumpkins as Mr. Potato Head Pumpkins!
6. Poke holes in a pattern (think LightBright)—This one also requires a drill or some other tool to make holes (I would recommend a power tool since with this one you will be making a lot of holes!) Plan out a pattern of holes on paper, and then drill them into the pumpkin, so the light from inside will make a pattern or picture! (I would think you could also stick colored tissue paper on the inside and if the pumpkin was still sticky, the tissue paper would dry there…but this is untested so I don’t know if it would work! Similar to the paint, don’t leave tissue-papered pumpkins outside! The paper will dissolve if it rains.)
7. Sequins and Ribbons—This is what I like to call a Martha Stewart Pumpkin. Get out all your old ribbon, sequins, fabric, whatever you want, and decorate your pumpkin with it! Using hot glue should work, although this is another one I haven’t tested yet.
8. See Thru Rind—I didn’t know what to call this one, but some of the best pumpkins I’ve seen have been carved so they still have some rind/skin/body left, but it’s thin enough that the light from inside makes that part glow! It can be a really cool effect, look online for samples of this. I just googled Pumpkin carving and found lots! (Unfortunately none of the sites told me what the technique was called!)
9. Colored Lights—Use some old Christmas lights, or buy a cheap set, and use them to help decorate your pumpkin! If you are a Christmasy person, wrap ‘em around the outside! If you want a cool effect, get a short set of lights that flicker or switch colors and use them on the inside of your carved jack-o-lantern for a neat effect. You could also use this idea with #6 above, and try to make a true Light Bright.
10. Use Multiple Pumpkins, Stack em or stick em! Don’t be afraid to use multiple pumpkins to make a creative scene. I’ve seen stacked pumpkins to make snowmen, and I’ve seen pieces of one pumpkin used to create cute accessories on another pumpkin (think using the top/stem of one pumpkin and sticking it to another pumpkin as a nose). The bottom of one pumpkin could also make a cute hat for another pumpkin, or a bowl for a bunch of little pumpkins to sit in.